Use your uniqueness in service to God
by Rick Warren

You don't have to travel very far until you discover that God loves variety. Did you know he made more than 300,000 species of beetles alone? Would you call that creative overkill? Don’t you think the world could have gotten along just fine with only 50,000 species of beetles? So why did he make so many? Because he loves variety.

He likes variety in people, too. Have you ever taken a second at the airport to watch the parade of peculiar people walking by you? There’s proof right there that God loves variety. He made every single one of those individuals. He made you!

Psalm 139:13 (GN) says this: "You (God) created every part of me. You put me together in my mother's womb." In the Living Bible, verse 14 says: "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous." Job 10:8a (GN) says: "Your hands formed and shaped me."

From these verses, we learn that God himself intentionally made each of us who we are. The Scripture teaches three foundational truths about you:

You are unique. It’s true. There's not anybody in the world like you. There never has been, and there never will be. When God made you, he broke the mold. God does not create carbon copies; he only creates originals. If you were to search the whole world, you wouldn't find two people who had the same footprint or fingerprint or voiceprint. Each person is unique. Why did God make you different from every person who's ever lived? Why did he go to all that trouble? Because he wants you to know how much you matter to him.

You are wonderfully complex. How many of you married somebody who is wonderfully complex? The fact is, each of us is so complex that many times we are a mystery to ourselves. Have you ever acted in a certain way that surprised you? Have you ever said something and later thought, "What was I thinking when I said that?" Have you ever felt a certain way and later thought, "Why do I feel this way? What's happening to me?" We are mysteries to ourselves. Have you ever been in a group and it seems that everybody reacted one way to a circumstance, and you found yourself reacting in the exact opposite way to everyone else in the group? Inside you think, "What's wrong with me?" There's nothing wrong with you, you're just unique.

Sometimes you just have to admit, "I don't know why I feel this way. I don't know why I said that. I don't know why I thought that." But God does. You are unique, and you're wonderfully complex.

You were shaped for a purpose! The Bible tells us that God created everything in the world for a purpose -- and that includes you. You're not here by accident. You're not just taking up space. God made you for a reason. You were designed by God, and it was his idea to make you. It's not a mistake. You were planned before birth. God did not simply sit down at a computer and randomly access a bunch of components and throw it all together and then wait to see what popped out. The Bible clearly teaches that you were purposefully and personally planned and designed by God. His loving hand made you exactly the way you are. You're not an accident. God had a plan in the genetic codes of your life. He didn't just throw it all together. You are you because God wanted you to be you. Your uniqueness is what God wants you to offer to the world.

God gave you unique spiritual gifts, a unique heart, unique abilities, a unique personality, and a lifetime of unique experiences so you would make your own unique difference in the world. The way you’ve been put together affects every area of your life -- your relationships, your career, your finances, your retirement, your enjoyment, your hobbies, and your recreation. And it absolutely affects your ministry.

Who you are is fixed, stable, enduring, and constant. Your unique shape does not change. As you go through different stages in life, you may have different expressions, but your shape demonstrates itself very early and continues with you for a lifetime. If you were pulling pranks as a little child, you'll probably still be pulling pranks at 85. If you were wheeling and dealing in third grade at recess, trading marbles, when you're in the rest home you'll probably be wheeling and dealing in bed pans. It's in your nature to be a wheeler dealer! If, as a little child, you had a caring heart for hurting animals -- maybe you fixed a cat's paw or a broken wing on a little bird -- the rest of your life you're going to be caring for hurting people and hurting animals. You're made that way. It's fixed. You never get tired of doing what you're shaped to do. You don't get bored with it. No matter how many satisfying experiences you have, you're always ready for another one. Why? God made you that way.

The fact is you can't be anything but you. It's all you can be. There's no escaping it. If you enjoy doing something over and over, you'll repeat it. It becomes a pattern in your life. And though you may try to be like somebody else, eventually your real self will spurt through.

The next time you see a snowflake, consider this fact: There are 18 million snowflakes in a single cubic foot of snow -- and not one of them is like another. We may not be able to tell them apart, but God can. And he loves variety.

If he went through all that trouble to make unique snowflakes, why should we be surprised that he took the time to make each of us unique? I pray you use your uniqueness to impact our world.

Until next week,