Shouldn't we at least be weird?

I've finally gotten around to reading The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg. I'm only 39 pages in, and already I feel like I've heard this all somewhere before. That said, it really is a good book for motivating some serious reflection. In talking about being spiritually inauthentic, Ortberg quotes someone who asks about his church, "'Well, you use drama, and people are used to that in the world. And you play contemporary music just like they're used to hearing. So how will they know you're different? Everybody knows that as Christians we're supposed to be different from people in the world by being more loving and more gentle, and everybody knows that we're not. So don't we have to do something to show we're different?" Ortberg then writes, "In other words, if we can't be holy, shouldn't we at least be weird?"

Luckily, I go to a church where I feel like if we're weird it's because we really are, not because we're compensating for a lack of spiritual growth. In general, I feel my group of friends is pretty authentic. Just last weekend I was riding roller coasters at King's Island with a friend. We rode as many rides as possible in the front seat, and as we were dangling over the first hill on one ride waiting for the rest of the cars to catch up with us and begin the terrifying decent, he said, "oh shit!" That's exactly what I was thinking, and at that moment there was no point in putting any spiritual spin on what was an honest - and frankly appropriate - thought.