{"id":2016,"date":"2022-10-03T07:31:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2022-10-03T07:31:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:31:21","slug":"the-difference-that-your-differentness-makes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/03\/the-difference-that-your-differentness-makes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference that Your Differentness Makes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.

Henry Ford lived his entire life within a dozen miles of the Dearborn, Michigan farm where he was born.
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A guy who experienced almost nothing of the world nevertheless changed it in ways that are still reverberating today.\u00a0
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Ford is arguably the most successful industrialist of all time.\u00a0 He is hardly remembered as a daring young entrepreneur, since his primary culture-shaping contribution \u2013 the car he named the Model T \u2013 rolled off the assembly line for the first time on October 1, 1908, when he was already 45 years old.
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Automobiles were rapidly coming into fashion. \u00a0At the time, there were some 2,200 makes on the market. \u00a0But the Model T left them all in the dust.\u00a0
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Ford\u2019s production numbers defy imagination.\u00a0 Within four years, 75% of all the cars on the road were Model Ts.\u00a0 In 1910, it took 14 hours to build one.\u00a0 By 1913, assembly required only 90 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 A car, truck, or tractor rolled off a Ford assembly line somewhere in the world every 10 seconds.\u00a0 Prices fell rapidly.\u00a0 As social historian Bill Bryson reports in Made in America<\/em>, the cost of a Model T plunged from $850 to just $345 in 1916.\u00a0 Ford doubled the wages of his factory employees to the princely sum of $5 a day, which allowed ordinary blue-collar workers to live the dream of buying the very items they were making.\u00a0
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By 1920, the United States sold more cars every year than the rest of the world put together, and more automobiles were tooling around the state of Michigan than England and Ireland combined.
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Model Ts were romanticized as the greatest invention of all time during the first quarter of the 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 They are still remembered fondly today.\u00a0 But make no mistake: They were a beast to drive.
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The original models had no speedometer and no gas gauge.\u00a0 If you wanted to find out if you were running low on fuel, you had to stop, get out, tip the driver\u2019s seat back, and check the dipstick in the gas tank.\u00a0 Checking oil levels required even greater commitment.\u00a0 The driver had to slide under the car, use pliers to unscrew the oil plug, and judge the need for additional oil by how fast the stream poured onto the ground.\u00a0 The car\u2019s unique \u201cplanetary transmission\u201d had two forward gears and one reverse, and took a long time to master.\u00a0 The headlights were notoriously dim at low speeds, but could burn so hot at higher speeds that they might explode.\u00a0
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So what made the Model T so charming?
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Every one of them, as Bryson reports, was \u201cpractically indestructible, easily repaired, strong enough to pull itself through mud and snow, and built high enough to clear ruts.\u201d\u00a0 Each one could also be adapted to plough fields, clear snow, or pump water.\u00a0 Just try to do that with your Honda Civic this week.\u00a0
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Model Ts are chiefly remembered for their sameness<\/em>.\u00a0 Apart from minor variations, they were all alike.
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\u201cYou can have any color you want, as long as it\u2019s black,\u201d Ford used to quip.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t precisely true.\u00a0 The original shades were gray, red, and green.\u00a0 But black enamel was the only paint that dried fast enough to be useful in Ford\u2019s high-speed assembly process.\u00a0 Therefore the vast majority of Model Ts ended up black.\u00a0 Car parts were also interchangeable.\u00a0 If you ever had reason to do so, you could always swap components with the guy who lived next door.\u00a0
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Sameness is comforting.\u00a0 Sameness is what assures us that a Whopper will taste pretty much the same at every Burger King from coast to coast.\u00a0 There\u2019s a sameness to the floor plan for every Holiday Inn Express.\u00a0 \u201cThe best surprise is no surprise,\u201d Holiday Inn\u2019s marketers remind us.\u00a0 \u00a0Standardization of food, service, travel, and human experience in general has become an expectation.\u00a0 Sameness rules.\u00a0
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But sameness is not the rule in the Jesus-following life.\u00a0
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The apostle Paul makes this bedrock statement in I Corinthians 12:4-6: \u201cThere are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit\u00a0distributes them.\u00a0 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.\u00a0 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone\u00a0it is the same God\u00a0at work.\u201d
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Notice where the sameness is found. \u00a0It relates to the source<\/em> of human giftedness.\u00a0 We receive what we need in life from the same God (the Father), Lord (the Son), and Spirit.\u00a0
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Our personal experience, meanwhile, is differentness<\/em> \u2013 different gifts, different kinds of service, different kinds of working. \u00a0People are not interchangeable.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t all roll off the same assembly line.
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Every Christian carries the DNA of discipleship.\u00a0 But just as different cells in different parts of the human body express different aspects of the same genetic code, members of Christ\u2019s Body will tend to excel in significantly different areas.
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Let\u2019s imagine, for example, that as part of trusting Christ we\u2019re all called to live out the letters \u201cSE.\u201d\u00a0 How might that be expressed in ministry?\u00a0
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For those in the choir, SE might mean \u201csing exuberantly.\u201d\u00a0 People on a mission venture will \u201cserve enthusiastically.\u201d\u00a0 Members of the pastoral staff are called to \u201cstudy eagerly.\u201d\u00a0 Volunteers with Habitat for Humanity \u201csheetrock energetically.\u201d\u00a0 Those on the Finance Team excel at \u201cshrinking expenses.\u201d\u00a0 And out of love for God, members of the Sunday morning Hospitality Team will \u201cserve eclairs\u201d \u2013 something that helps the rest of us love God, too.\u00a0
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If all this sounds like a vast over-simplification, it is.\u00a0 No one knows how or why the Holy Spirit leads different members of God\u2019s team to function in such different ways.
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Nevertheless, we know it\u2019s true.\u00a0 To paraphrase Paul, \u201cIf all of us exceled at the same thing, you\u2019d never look at a group of Christians and say, \u2018Now, that\u2019s a body.\u2019\u201d
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So where does that leave each of us?\u00a0
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Resolve to discern the uniqueness of your calling, and pursue it with all your heart.\u00a0 As old saying goes, when you get to heaven God isn\u2019t going to ask you why you weren\u2019t more like Martin Luther or Augustine of Hippo or Francis of Assisi or Billy Graham or Mother Teresa.\u00a0 He\u2019ll ask you why you weren\u2019t more like you<\/em>.
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It\u2019s time to leave the same-old-same-old fears behind.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t true that when God was passing out gifts, you were somehow overlooked.
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Your spiritual enablements, opportunities, and differentness<\/em> are exactly what the world needs.\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here. Henry Ford lived his entire life within a dozen miles of the Dearborn, Michigan farm where he was born.\u00a0A guy who experienced almost nothing of the world nevertheless changed it in ways that are still reverberating today.\u00a0\u00a0Ford is arguably the most successful industrialist of all time.\u00a0 He is hardly remembered as… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[508],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spiritual-gifts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}