What does being a Christian mean to you? How does being a Seventh-day Adventist Christian make your life different from the average person you work with or live near who doesn’t share your faith?
Ellen White famously penned, “Seventh-day Adventists have been chosen by God as a peculiar people, separate from the world. By the great cleaver of truth, He has cut them out from the quarry of the world and brought them into connection with Himself. He has made them His representatives and has called them to be ambassadors for Him in the last work of salvation”—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 138.
As Adventists, we struggle to understand this quote and apply it to our lives. Some of us don’t like the idea of being peculiar, and we strive to blend in with those around us. Others of us do everything we can to stand out as distinctively different from those around us. The first group is often criticized as being too much like the world. The second group is criticized for being out of touch and inaccessible to “normal” people.
At the root of this dichotomy is a misunderstanding of the word “peculiar,” as Ellen White intended it. If we look in the Cambridge Dictionary, peculiar is defined as: “unusual or strange, sometimes in an unpleasant way.” If we are living and orienting ourselves to the world based on that definition of “peculiar,” then you can see the challenges and perhaps understand why some of our young people want nothing to do with a faith that seems strange or unpleasant. However, when Ellen White uses this word, her understanding and application of the word is nothing like the definition presented in the Cambridge Dictionary. When she uses the word “peculiar,” she means that we are to be unusually defined by our faith and that our lives and character are to be unusually loving, unusually winsome, and unusually attractive. When we live as that kind of “peculiar people,” it is life changing. It brings purpose to our existence and makes our faith contagious to others around us.
Recently, my wife, Cynthia, and I had dinner with a young couple, Kyle and Jackie Howard. Kyle and Jackie are members in our union. I have always enjoyed their friendship, and admired how being a Seventh-day Adventist Christian truly defines the way they live their lives.
We were thrilled as they shared with us how God is directing their lives and using them to further His kingdom. Kyle is an electrician and recently started his own business, Genesis Electrical. His tag line is, “Let there be light!” He uses the name of his business, his kind, helpful, and honest service, and that biblical tag line as an example of how Jesus has changed his life. Jackie is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling to enable her to minister to people and help them navigate the challenges of living life on a sinful planet. This is a unique and peculiar couple in the context of Adventist Christianity. Their witness and example are contagious on behalf of Christ and our church. They are truly living as “salt and light.” In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
What would it look like if all 130,000 of us in the Atlantic Union lived as truly peculiar people? What if we all aspired to live as winsome, kind, and loving people who use our lives and our talents to share how Jesus makes a difference? By God’s grace, may this become a reality in my life and in your life.
