TRUE UNIQUENESS

One thing that happens automatically to a person as they age is the expansion of their perspective. Today I would like to say a little about my observations of generational questing for uniqueness. I am going to concentrate my remarks on the high school age crowd, but I could easily have chosen almost any age group for today's thoughts.

When I was attending Garden Grove Union High School the boys displayed their uniqueness by shackling their pants (wearing them as low as gravitational pull would allow) which had a tendency to stretch to the limits the tucked in extra long tight white tee shirts. Hair had to be slicked down with some kind of oily stuff that held your flat top or duck tail into place. Girls had their hair cut at shoulder length with the ends flipped up and their bangs neatly cut eyebrow length. They wore knee length full skirts and tailored blouses. We went about campus like a clone army reveling in our uniqueness.

When I first started teaching in Kearns, Utah the young men (it was no longer fashionable to call them boys) were displaying their uniqueness with the dry hair look and wearing their shirt tales outside their Levi's. The young women were now wearing slacks to school and mostly kept their hair short and sporty looking. Everyone could see as the mob passed that they were unique in their universality.

During many of the year's Kathleen and I had offspring in high school uniqueness was demonstrated by wearing as much black as possible and having your hair as long as your restrainers (parents, school officials etc.) would permit. It was a unique display of independence to call all adults by their first name especially if that adult happened to have been responsible for bringing you into the world. It was a time of morbid longhaired surnameless uniqueness sustained by almost every kid in school.

Today I don't have the benefit of an advantageous platform to observe from, but what seems to be the way to display uniqueness today is to pick some group which has been founded by allegiance to some 'popular' trend, sound, brand or anti social movement and then dress and act appropriately. Names have become passé and universal titles are used when addressing another. (Dude – that's about the only one I can include and still keep this a Sabbath Day thought) It is preferred to put on attire which has the appearance of having been discarded by a local charitable donation center. Hair is to be any color but what you were born with and is cut to several lengths on the same head. They who are in a group of short hair do's, use super gel (goop) to make sure it doesn't move from it's spiked state during the day. Even though uniqueness has taken on a tribal identification motif, it still has a universal feel to it.

I have been especially impressed through the years as I witnessed uniqueness being displayed in ever repeating cycles as males have raised and lowered their pants, changed the angle and location of the bill of their caps and as girls have raised and lowered their hem lines, and made other cosmetic changes in a demonstration of their individuality.

I'm not sure, but I have a pretty good idea this isn't what the Lord had in mind when he admonished us to become a chosen generation, guardians of the covenant, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood and a treasure unto Him.

As I search the scriptures I find Him defining the uniqueness of His children as they who will be distinguish by modest apparel, comeliness (a beauty which comes from the radiance of the natural being), cleanliness, purity etc., continuing to seek after this extremely different profile until eventually they have put the image of God on their countenance.

It seems that the Lord would have us become a people less driven by the barons of fashion, trends and brands and more in tune with the teachings of His anointed, a people who are more desirous to be in tune with the Spirit than trying to please a mob which never seems to know where it wants to go.

I feel confident that those who really seek to be truly unique today will achieve it most easily by becoming part of the group which is uniquely preparing itself to stand with confidence in the Day of the Lord.