#152 – Disco Death Star

I desperately want the above t-shirt. If I get nothing else for my birthday but that shirt, I will consider turning 30 an undeniable success.

I like that shirt because it says that I’m a nerd but it also says that I’m cool. Sure, I’d be wearing the Death Star on my shirt, but since it’s a disco ball people would be able to see that I’m not too nerdy. That shirt says I grew up liking Star Wars and may have a few action figures on my desk, but I’m not living in my mom’s basement writing my manifesto for how the galaxy far, far away was forever sullied when Greedo shot first.

I like letting people know that I’m a nerd as long as they don’t see me as too nerdy.

As humans we like to do that a lot, cover up a part of ourselves in order to be accepted by those around us. It’s no surprise that the first thing Adam and Eve did after The Fall was to cover up and hide their true selves. Ever since they took those first bites, the rest of us have been doing the same thing. 

I’m a nerd and in his infinite wisdom that’s how God created me. But in my less-than-infinite wisdom I want to cover that up.

Whether we’re a nerd, a jock, an athlete or a mathlete, we should never cover up the fascinating ways in which God shaped and formed us.

Psalm 139 says:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

All we need to do is look around to see God’s infinite creativity. He could have created a cookie cutter world composed of straight edges and subdued colors. Instead, though, he created the peacock, sunsets and panda bears. And that creativity isn’t just reserved for animals and plants, that creativity is reflected in each and every human being.

When I was younger I wanted to cover up my uniqueness; I wanted to be like everybody else. But when we do that we’re denying the creativity and passion with which we were formed. God didn’t create us to be like anyone else; he created you to be you and me to be me.

So if that means wearing a Death Star shirt that just has a Death Star on it, so be it.

If that means refusing to buy certain labels to impress other people, so be it.

If that means praying before a meal in a restaurant, so be it.

We were fearfully and wonderfully made and we shouldn’t do anything to cover that up.

But God made me love disco and Star Wars, so I still want that shirt.

How have you embraced the way that God formed you?