In the book The Uglies, by Scott Westerfield, the main character, Tally, is a soon to be sixteen year old girl living in a world that is obsessed with beauty. In Tally's world, anyone normal is "ugly", and the only way to escape the title is to turn sixteen, when all citizens go through a life-changing operation that turns them "beautiful"- inside and out. But Tally and her friends soon discover that more than just your appearance changes in the operation. Your mind changes as well. "Pretties", as they are called, are not the same people they once were before they undergo the operation. They are complacent, and though they have a not a care in the world, they live boring, shallow, lives. Though Tally's world is fictional, one startling similarity parallels it to ours: just like in Tally's world, the message in ours is clear: being you isn't good enough. I have not heard it said better than the way E.E. Cummings says it: "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.".
The fact is, our world, just like Tally's, is trying day and night to make us everything but what we truly are. It's trying to mold you into another celebrity-clone. It urges you to "join the masses"- whether it's by trying to make you buy the "next greatest thing", or convince you to wear the same hairstyle as the most famous gal on the red carpet. It's trying to take away your identity and give you a new one- one that fits into another's "ideal". It screams from every billboard, every advertisement, " YOU WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH!". At least not until you buy the newest iPhone, and get that haircut that everyone is sporting, or spend your life savings re-inventing your wardrobe. And sometimes, the world is frighteningly successful. Just like trying to turn "uglies" into "pretties", the world molds and shapes us into the same shape as everyone else, sucking our individuality and the freedom we have in Christ to express it away bit by bit. I once read a book entitled "How can I be myself if I don't know who I am?" And the sad thing is, many people have forgotten themselves in the midst of a world that orders you to be everything but. The concept no longer exists as simply a catchy book title, but as a reality that modern culture is so steeped in that it may be hard to recognize.
Each of us is engaged in our own silent war, everyday, at every moment. We each battle satan, the culture, and even ourselves every single day. We battle on as we strive to be what we were created to be: ourselves. And yet, as simple as it sounds, this battle is the hardest any of us will ever wage. It doesn't get much more difficult than defending your very identity against Satan's clever attacks executed by the world around us. The battle is hard, and never-ending. Sometimes it may seem easier to just blend in- go with the flow, swim with the school. In the Uglies, Tally wants nothing but to be pretty for much of the book. Her single desire becomes fitting in, because she believes that is what will make her happy. Tally, like many of us, thought that loosing her individuality surely wasn't as bad as going it alone, right?
When these sneaky thoughts invade our mind, they cause us to forget: we have an advantage Tally didn't- we are never alone. Christ has promised to never lead us, never forsake us#. He gave us the gift of individuality, surely he will fight along side us to protect it. "For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."# He made us in His image, to mirror his attributes, and one of these is creativity. How much more difficult is it to express our creativity when we lock it in a box, controlled by the world around us, their trends, their ideas, the mass' ideals. While being ourselves in this world may not be easy, while at times it may seem futile, this battle we can choose to wage is worth it entirely. The victory is already ours- we just have to claim it.
Psalm 60: 12 happily proclaims: "With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies." It no longer,then, is a question of if we will win, but of if we will fight for the victory God has already promised. Proverbs 21:31 observes: The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD. The victory is ours for the taking, if only we will rise up to claim it, "for everyone born of God overcomes the world.#"
Edward Estlin Cummings sums up the battle best when he says, "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." But I think Mr. Cummings missed a crucial second point: that although the battle we must wage for our individuality is hard, it is wholly worth fighting, because the victory is already ours.