EXCEPTION?

This décor saying I spotted at a local crafts store—“Be the exception”--reminded me of how word meanings can change in a generation. I grew up in times when “being the exception” usually meant flaunting school rules and social conventions. It described kids who got sent to the principal’s office for being negative or rebellious. But a similar word, exceptional, had a more positive spin. It described gifted or hard-working students. One year behind me in high school there was an exceptional teen who, every day after school, practiced the piano for several hours before doing her homework. She became a concert pianist and professor of piano at a large public university. Focused. A good steward of natural abilities she developed with hard work.

So here’s my dilemma. I want to be exceptional, in the sense of wisely developing and using the gifts and abilities God gave me. But I also want to be the exception that doesn’t practice my culture’s negative ways of dealing with discord and stress. Even though two millennia old, the advice that the apostle Peter gave about behavior is still a good measuring rod. He urged the early Christians to be the exception from the godless world around them, and to seek being positively “exceptional” in one’s daily words and actions: “Rid yourself of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Peter 2:1).

These aren’t new problems. Nor is the stain of rebellion. It was one of the things that seemed to most grieve the aging, battle-worn apostle Paul as he neared the end of this life. Knowing he’d probably be executed by the Romans, Paul wrote this warning to Timothy, then nurturing the church in Ephesus:

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

What a discouraging list. More discouraging, it describes our times. I take note of these words at the beginning of that quote: “Terrible times in the last days.” And there hasn’t been much improvement over centuries. But Paul suggests a road through this mess, advising believers:

*To pursue purpose, faith, patience, love and endurance such as Paul showed in his sufferings and persecution (3:10-11).

*To expect persecution if you endeavor to live a godly life in Christ Jesus (3:12).

*To trust God to equip you, through His Word, for all life’s negative challenges (3:16-17)

*To endure hardship (4:5)

*To long for Christ’s coming again (4:8).

In other words, to be the exception, as God defines things. It’s the true way to go.