The Ease of Conformity

There are times in my life where I just think that a bunch of my problems in life could be solved by me being a stereotypical rightwing conservative redneck.  At least my options would be significantly more limited, so decision-making would be easier.  Most of my political decisions could be based on one issue, and the rest would easily fall into place.  My days could be filled, not with discussing the different meanings of Bible verses or worrying about dancing (sorry Baptists…).  I could just sit around with my hefty collection of guns, polishing the chrome rims of my mudding truck, petting my hound, and blogging about how terrible Obama is as President.  Life would be so much simpler that way…  Wouldn’t it?

But, then again, wouldn’t it be even easier to be an Agnostic?  To just say, “I don’t know,” and be done with the whole conversation about God and faith?

Wouldn’t it be easier to not worry about morality?  Not worry about clothing?  Not worry about hair or cars or stylish lingo?

Isn’t conformity the answer?

But, what about my individuality?  What about this push for everyone to be themselves?  My generation has been drowning in a sea of individuality.  But, what winds up happening is that people see someone dressing “different” and that person who started it would just be the trendsetter.

Is trendsetting really being an individual?

Now, while the way we dress isn’t as important as being political or religious or whatever, it’s the same idea.  It defines us to the world.  It’s unfortunate, but people make random associations based on that kind of thing.  Right?  Stereotyping?

I did it at the very beginning of this post.

So… what to do?

I personally think that the word “conform” has been demonized for a long time now and that it’s not that bad of a thing.  It doesn’t mean that you have to do EVERYTHING the exact same way that EVERYONE else does it, but it means that when people look at you they’re going to think one thing.

The “one thing” that people think about is the key.  I think it’s going to be hard, but for Christians, I hope that one day, people will look at me and see Jesus.  Not the pale-face and glowing halo, but the nature and spirit of him.  BUT, we’ve got a fight ahead of us because I don’t know about you, but I tend to remember people more from the BAD they do, and it takes more time for me to associate good with that.  For instance, how many bad experiences does it take to tarnish a company’s reputation for you?  Maybe three at the most, then you stop going there… right?

Well, let me be the first to say that we’ve had some bad employees for Christianity, and I think I’ve been one of them quite a few times.  But I think we can gain our reputation back.

So… any ideas on where to start?