A few months ago I read Get Weird: Discover the Surprising Secret to Making a Difference by CJ Casciotta.
I’ll admit the title caught my attention, but the subtitle is what really drew me in.
Take a second to reread the subtitle.
God gave me a HUGE passion for sharing the stories of overcomers, and through those stories, I want nothing more than to make a difference.
God Will Walk by Their Side
To make a difference in the lives of those who are struggling and only see darkness and fear.
Encouraging someone when they are struggling goes a long way, this I know.
To make a difference in those lives by sharing how God will walk by their side and strengthen them as they fight to overcome.
You might think me weird. I’m OK with that.
Honestly, I hope you’re weird, too.
Weird Is Sacred
You see, Casciotta says, “The word weird is often used as a way to reference those attributes that make us different, peculiar, or odd. The actual definition, however, holds far greater power.”
He goes on to say, “Weird suggests the supernatural. Weird is unearthly. Weird is sacred.”
Supernatural, unearthly, and sacred all point to God.
We Each Have a Specific Something Special
In the Hebrew language, weird means uniqueness or set-apartness.
Think on that for a moment. Our uniqueness. How we are set apart from others. Not set above. Or set below. But set apart, because God made each of us unique. Or weird.
Why would God make each of us unique, or dare I say, weird?
I believe I am unique and you are unique, because we each have a specific something special only you or I can contribute to our world.
Our uniqueness makes us weird.
Couldn’t Live 24 Hours Without His Weirdness
Casciotta writes, “Uniqueness, weirdness, differentiation is what drives innovation and change.” Our society benefits greatly in the areas of innovation and change when people follow their weirdness!
Can you imagine a world without planes? Thanks to the weird Wright brothers, you can travel across the United States in a matter of hours. It still feels weird to me to be in the air, working against gravity, on a machine that weighs 285 tons.
THANK YOU, Wright brothers, for wildly dreaming about humans in flight!
Need your doctor to see what’s going on inside you so he can make a better diagnosis of your health struggles? Marie Curie‘s weird contribution of the x-ray machine has likely saved millions of lives.
THANK YOU, Marie Curie, for boldly stepping above society’s limited view of women as scientists!
Taking the technology of a computer, the internet, a gaming system, and a camera and putting it into a portable phone. Simply unreal. Most of us couldn’t live 24 hours without Steve Jobs‘ weirdness.
THANK YOU, Steve Jobs for advancing technology with your weird imagination!
After watching how excited goats became after eating the beans from a coffee plant, Ethiopian goat herder, Kaldi, had a weird idea to grind the beans and pour hot water over them. Ground beans + hot water = coffee. Now that was a weird idea!
I am THANKFUL to Kaldi every morning for his weirdness. How about you?
See where I’m going with this? These individuals and countless others risked being viewed as weird, because their passion for contributing something to the world far outweighed what others thought of them.
Your Weirdness Is Our Gain
If I had to pick my favorite part of Casciotta’s book, I’d have to say it’s this quote:
Your weirdness, the ideas that come from your own imagination and the rhythms that rumble in your own soul, are everything you need to create what only you can, creations with the capacity to make our world a far more beautiful, interesting place to live.
Your weirdness is our gain.
Your perfection is our loss.
Let that sit and marinate for a minute.
Your weirdness allows you to create only what you can. If you don’t create it, the world loses.
If you do follow your passions and risk being viewed as weird, the world wins!
One Person Who Needed That Story
My weird passion for encouraging and inspiring and instilling hope through the stories of overcomers is the world’s gain? YES!
When I write the stories, are my words perfectly capturing the overcomer’s story every time? NO! But I have learned my trying to make them perfect and then deciding not to hit the publish button is a loss to that ONE person who needed that story.
Allow me to give you an example: My friend Cindie was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago. Within days of her diagnosis, she went to my website and read and reread and reread Jule’s story of fighting breast cancer.
“Reading her story strengthened me. Knowing what Jule did to stay positive during the tough times motivated me to keep fighting,” Cindie shared.
Cindie NEEDED that story. Would Cindie have fought hard without Jule’s story? YES. But Jule’s story made a difference in Cindie’s life. And for that, I’m glad I’m weird.