Poet e. e. cummings (who always seemed weird because he didn’t use capitals in his name), has some wise words in his A Poet’s Advice to Students (1955). “To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”

His words echo Paul’s warning to the Christians of Rome. After discussing the goodness and severity of God toward the Jews and the Gentiles, he begs them to stand apart from the world. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1–2). 

As cummings and Paul remind us, the world is working overtime to make us like it. The media, the peer pressure, and our own desire to “fit in” make it hard for us to be different. Pressure to conform is severe and subtle at the same time.

If we watch the same TV shows, go to the same movies, engage in the same social and recreational activities, read the same books and magazines, and do what everyone else does, will we be able to be different from the world? The key to resisting the world is to be truly “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Where is our focus today? “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).

Let’s be different, truly different!