But jogging was not always "what everyone did." The whole idea of jogging for your health's sake began in the 1960s and back then anyone who did it was considered a "weirdo" or "an exercise freak." In fact, in 1968, a man named Dick Cordier from Hartford, Connecticut, was out jogging one day and was stopped by the police for "illegal use of the highway."
It seems that this new fitness routine, jogging, began in New Zealand. William Bowerman, an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, visited a friend there in 1962 and saw people of all ages participating in this new hobby. He published a four page pamphlet co-sponsored by the Oregon Heart Association and suddenly people started listening. Still, it took time for the word to spread, as evidenced by poor Mr. Cordier's citation. But later that year, on October 15, 1968, The Chicago Tribune published an entire page on jogging and people began to look at the weirdos a different way. By the time 1983 came along, I was perfectly happy to jog down the highway and unworried about what people might think. But I wonder how well I might have done back in 1968?
It's hard to be different. Usually we save these lessons for our teenagers, but folks, we need the lesson, too. How many times have we thought we needed something because everyone else had it, or thought we should wear something because it was the latest style, or avoided stating an opinion we knew might make others dislike us? They had that problem in the first century, too.
For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you (1Pet 4:3-4). Don't think you would never fall for "those kinds" of sins. When everyone else is doing it, it suddenly seems less wrong. That is exactly why our culture has fallen to a new low in morality.
It would be good to remind ourselves of four teenage boys who not only managed to be different, but seemed to revel in it. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself… (Dan 1:6-8). The rest of the story makes the point. Daniel and his friends did not try to hide their difference. They pointed it out in a hostile environment and allowed their faith to be tested, and it wasn't just a popularity contest. If they had failed to please the Babylonian king, someone might well have died. The steward himself said, "You will endanger my head" (1:10), and should their refusal to eat the king's food be known to the king, that king, especially, might have taken it badly. God rewarded their faith, as he did continually in their stay in Babylon, even rescuing them from the fiery furnace and the lion's den.
But God does not always save us from the consequences of being different. What are we failing to do because it is not popular, or because "times have changed?" And what are we doing because "everyone else is?" Have we ever dared to do or say something that was unpopular on purpose? Forget talking to the young people until we can answer those questions ourselves. Peer pressure works on us all!
God has plenty to say about his desire that His children be different:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:2).
My son, do not walk in the way with [sinners]; hold back your foot from their paths (Prov 1:15).
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night (Ps 1:1-2).
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matt 7:13-14).
I
f you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:19).
Maybe we neglect teaching our children to revel in their difference because we have not learned to ourselves. We need to be out there showing them the way, making "illegal use of the highway" in a time where no one except weirdos jogs. Make no mistake: whoever we want to be most like, whoever we act, dress, and speak like, that is our god. Do we want to be like the rest of the world, or like Jesus?
That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Phil 2:15).
Dene Ward