18h • General discussion
A peculiar people
All my life, I just wanted to fit in to be normal.
No matter where I went, I carried the quiet ache of not belonging. I wasn’t good enough, smart enough, or sometimes I felt like I was simply too much. Even as a Christian, I often believed I would never quite measure up to the standard.
Then Scripture reframed the story.
Deuteronomy 14:2 says:
“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”
For a long time, that word peculiar felt uncomfortable. But now I understand why it has always fit.
To belong to God is to be His own. The word peculiar comes from the Latin peculiaris, meaning “one’s own possession.” In Hebrew, the word segullah speaks of treasured property something deeply valued. In Greek, peripoiesis means possession or something obtained at great cost. This is not the language of rejection or inadequacy. It is the language of belonging and worth.
Being peculiar does not mean being strange for the sake of it. It means being set apart. Chosen. Marked for holiness and purpose. It means we no longer move with the tide of the times or the world because the life we received from God is incompatible with the world. We were given a new life the very life of God Himself through Jesus.
That is why the Christian life feels different. That is why fitting in has always been difficult. We are not meant to blend in; we are meant to belong.
So who wants to be normal?
The world may twist the meaning of the word peculiar, but I choose God’s definition. I would rather be peculiar than normal any day, because I belong to God His treasured, chosen possession.
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A peculiar people
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