Be You

As I’m sure you’re aware, I’m a baseball fan.  The World Series finished Sunday, and of course I paid as much attention to it as I could.

Now, the first World Series was held in 1903.  That’s a hundred fifteen years ago.  You’d think, after a hundred fifteen years of World Series games, there’d be nothing new that could happen.  But you’d be wrong.  Last week, something happened in the World Series that had never happened before.  The game was tied after the regulation nine innings, and so they went to extra innings.  That, in itself, is not so unusual.  What was unusual is that they played nine extra innings.  The game went a total of eighteen innings, the longest World Series game ever played.

It was the longest World Series game in terms of time as well.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to watch the game, so I set up the TV to record it.  I set it for six hours of recording time, figuring that would be more than enough to get the whole game in.  As it turned out, it wasn’t even close.  The game lasted almost seven and a half hours, ending at about 2:30 in the morning Central Time.

It’s kind of amazing that after a hundred fifteen years, you can still see something new.  But you know what?  Creation has been around for only God knows how many years, and yet we still see something new.  Scientists are still discovering species of animals and fish and birds that we did not know existed.  That’s incredible.  But you know what else we see that’s new?  People.

Every person that’s born is different from every other person who’s ever been.  When a baby is born, that child is completely and totally unique, in the literal sense of the word.  There has never been a child born who was exactly like that baby.  And of course, it’s not just babies.  There has never been a person in the entire history of the universe who was exactly like you.  And there has never been a person in the entire history of the universe who was exactly like me.  That’s incredible, too.

And it’s yet another way that we can see how amazing God is.  All the billions of people who’ve lived on earth, and no two are exactly like.  That’s something, you know?  God would not have had to do it that way.  God could’ve created just a few types of people.  That probably would’ve been easier.  But God took the time and the effort and the care to create each one of us to be different and special.  That’s pretty cool.

So if you ever feel like people want you to conform, to be just like everyone else, remember this.  God did not create you to be just like everyone else.  God created you to be you.  God created you to be the best you that you can be, but God still created you to be you.  If God had wanted you to be someone else, God would’ve created you to be someone else.  God created you to be you.

So be you.  Be the best you that you can be, but be you.  If you are, you’ll please God.  And you’ll probably find that you’re happier, too.