Misfits Like Me.

I started community college this semester as a last minute decision not to return to Greenville this fall. It definitely is not what I was expecting but it far exceeds anything I could have looked forward to on my own. As I walked through the halls and sat in my classes on the first few days of school, I was surprised to notice that there is the widest variety of people I have seen that go to school together.  There isn't a certain profile that an NWACC student fits into. There are people who have families and full time jobs that are just trying to further their education. There are even older people who want to get a diploma after all these years. There are kids who, after spending a few years living like they wanted to, decided that school is a better option. There are students, like me, who want to get general education classes out of the way before pursuing bigger dreams. There are people who are just trying to make ends meet and make life better for their kids. I like to call the students in community college misfits. I don't use that as a derogatory term but to say that it seems to me that these people are about as real as it gets. I think the misfits at community college are the most beautiful people I have ever seen.

You see, I think that Jesus came for the misfits at community college. Not just them, of course, but people like them. People that don't plan on making their life be about money, people that might have a hard life ahead of or behind them, people who work hard without getting pats on the back or gold stars. Humble people. Just regular joes. People who have been marked up by life and are tired and weary.

I've been a part of a lot of groups in my life that like to be cool for Jesus, sometimes even in the name of Jesus. Jesus doesn't care about being cool. And neither do the misfits at community college. They just are who they are. Lots of them don't know how special they are. They don't know how furiously Jesus loves them. They haven't yet been carried off by the waves of God's grace into the deep ocean of His love. But I can't help but think that that is a better place to be than to think that we can live our lives being cool for Jesus. I think that maybe grace means more to people who don't think they are too good for it.

Really, I think that we are all misfits when it comes down to it. We just aren't ready to think about it. Life is really crazy and hard and beautiful when we are chasing the Wild Goose. More times than not, we are weary, full of worries and fears and doubts. We like to pretend that we are cool by trying to make our lives look like Pinterest and we like to pretend we are adventurous by posting our life on Instagram. I do it too of couse, but I think what I am really doing is making approval an idol and not casting my burdens on Jesus. To be in step with the Spirit that has been given to us means to be without worry and to be free from the world. Oh how I wish my full trust was in Jesus! I think it's good for us to realize that Jesus wasn't cool. Not only was he not cool, he was weird. He was a misfit born into a family of misfits (I mean, really, just think about his lineage! Ha!). Sometimes the closer we follow Jesus, the more unrelatable to the world we become. But we also become completely humble and gentle. The world doesn't recognize us. But the misfits do.

Francis Chan asked once whether or not we knew that nothing in life will ever matter unless we spend it loving God and loving the people he created. Well, if we are only loving the people that already love him, that doesn't make sense either. Light only shines in the darkness. Plus Jesus was weird and people didn't ever get him or why he did things. Maybe that's how we should look, too. Nothing else matters but Jesus, guys. He's the best and he loves you no matter how many times you mess up. Our mess ups make into the misfits. He hung out with the misfits. He loves the misfits. He loves you. He loves me.

Let's love the misfits, too.