Grant 
There is a tension I often see Christ-followers wrestle with. On one side is this hope and promise of a vibrant faith that changes everything, a faith that is dynamic and life-giving, that gives purpose and is the seedbed of miracles. There is this desire to grow deep in Christ and have more and more of our lives look like Jesus. We want a faith that is the rock that will hold steady in the middle of life’s strongest storms. We see the hope and joy of this faith in the life of others, and we want this.
On the other side is a deep desire to be… “normal.” We want to fit in, to be seen as cool or relevant. We don’t want to be singled out for our faith or called “Jesus Freak.” We don’t want to be labeled as weird or “super Christian.” It’s hard enough for us as it is in our world the way it is without adding the extra issues of being a crazed Christ-follower.
Here’s the truth. Normal doesn’t work. If normal worked, people wouldn’t be looking for hope and for answers. If normal worked, why are normal people suddenly not so normal when they encounter hardships and trials? Normal can’t withstand the hard stuff of life. Normal ends up being hollow, boring, unimpressive, and unfulfilling.
Do you really want that kind of life? Is that the kind of life that is worth having?
Yes, living out the reality of Jesus can get weird. It puts you in weird circumstances. You’ll have weird conversations. You’ll be asked to do weird things, and you may even be seen by your peers as a little…. weird. But I think weird is okay.
I actually think weird is better than okay. I think weird is better.
We are going to look at 4 key ways we can start living out our faith and making our faith… weird. This is not an EXHAUSTIVE list by any stretch of the imagination. But these 4 are foundational.
Restful Contentment
Radical Forgiveness
Generous Compassion
Messy Discipleship
We covered Restful Contentment last Sunday. Access the message here. Watch it. Join us the next three weeks. It’s gonna get weird. And that’s a good thing.