I still remember the day my wife and I bought our sons their first Sony PlayStation. For the next several years, I competed unsuccessfully with them on it. Playing video games soon became a favorite (but not exclusive) way for them to defeat their father. I would never master the skills they displayed intuitively.
I had no idea that one such game station would become so uniquely valuable. That’s because it was and is so unique.
A prototype birthed out of a failed partnership between Nintendo and Sony in the early 1990s and known as a “Nintendo PlayStation” just sold at auction for $300,000. It thus became the most expensive gaming collector’s item of all time, tripling the previous record.
Only two hundred prototypes of the system were manufactured. The partnership fell through, so Sony went on to make its own PlayStation console in 1994. Nintendo made its own gaming systems as well. The Sony PlayStation 2 eventually shipped 155 million units.
Why there’s only one of you
Sometimes, collaboration is the best way into an uncertain future. The more medical researchers can work together on antidotes and vaccines for covid-19, the better, we would assume. It takes a team to build a house or to run a successful multinational company.
By contrast, there are times when working in our uniqueness is the best expression of our uniqueness. God made each of us as he made no one else. Not just in our physical capacities such as fingerprints, but in our gifts and abilities.
There is a kingdom assignment for each of us that no one else can fulfill as we can. Knowing and doing what we were made to do is essential to living with purpose and joy.
Unfortunately, we live in a culture that rewards conformity to conventional wisdom and popularity based on popular opinion. The more we do what everyone else does, the more everyone else will applaud us.
It is more necessary today for Christians to stand apart than at any time in my lifetime. Nearly every social or moral issue of the day puts biblical values in conflict with cultural values. We are forced to say with Peter, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
However, our uniqueness reflects the uniqueness of our Lord. Our courageous witness enhances the strength of our witness. The more we are willing to pay a price to follow Jesus, the more others see the reality and relevance of our faith.
No matter where you are right now, know that God is using you today and preparing to use you tomorrow.
There’s only one of you because one of you and God is a majority.
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