Being different

If you try too hard to please everyone, you end up being nothing like anyone.

Jesus had put it much more elegantly: ‘You are the salt of the earth.’
Salt is that little something that makes all the difference. Invisible in the mix, yet impossible to ignore. Without it, everything tastes bland. Too much of it, and it’s a nuisance.

Being ‘different from everyone else’ – in your ideas, your beliefs, your way of life – that’s what it’s all about: sometimes you attract curiosity, sometimes rejection. Because being different is a bit unsettling; it shakes up routines and challenges the way we see things.

Karl Barth spoke of ‘being a sign of contradiction’: not to provoke needlessly, but to remain true to who one is, even when everything else is moving in the opposite direction.

And this is not limited to believers: in every field, there are these minority voices, these life choices that go against the grain. They are not a flaw to be corrected, but a source of richness to be embraced.

The real problem begins when we constantly compare ourselves to others: wanting to be ‘like’ or ‘better than’ someone else stifles who we really are. Accepting that we are different – and allowing others to be different too – means putting an end to competition and comparison. It means realising that diversity is not a threat, but an opportunity.

So yes, let us dare to be salt, even if it stings at times. Let us dare to be light, even if it dazzles a little. Not so that we ourselves may shine, but so that each of us, in our own unique way, may make the world richer, more authentic and more humane.

For, deep down, salt does not exist for its own sake. It gives of itself, dissolves… and transforms everything it touches.