I Am Not The Droid You Are Looking For - Let People Be Themselves

It is one of the many iconic phrases from the Star Wars saga. In Episode IV, as stormtroopers attempt to find two escaped droids with the plans for the Death Star battlestation, they fall under a little bit of mind control powers from old Obi Wan Kenobi. While they question him about the two droids he has, using the Force, Obi Wan suggests to them, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”

This little phrase hit me the other day as I have struggled with so many of the pulls I have experienced to conform to certain ways of doing things. This has included social media and blogging but also it has been something that has been thrown about in churches and among Christians. It is a nagging issue which needs to come to an end.

I am not the droid you are looking for.

Don’t come to me with a list of what you think a pastor ought to be doing when you don’t even know what it is we pastors do...and the jokes of working 1 day a week are just too old, so stop. What other vocation do you degrade like that? But it is so much more than that. God didn’t make us into droids. We are different and unique and our life experiences shape that even more. Through study and research about the Christian faith, I have come to some conclusions. Don’t confuse your Google searches with my degrees and ordination process. They are not like another denomination or pastor...which is why I’m not a pastor in another church! And if you want to make a bet that your pastor agrees with all your ideas and convictions, then you need to stay hanging out with that droid. You found the one you were looking for.

I am not the droid you are looking for.

Stop telling me I need to post on social media more often and share more. I did before in my life. I won’t do it now. It isn’t good for me. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to be social or on media, it just means I need to do it at my own pace. I have a family and friends and things I like to do and they aren’t for public consumption. I need boundaries. They are healthy and they are important to a fulfilling life.

I am not the droid you are looking for.

Can we stop with how all Christians and people of faith should be part of one political party? That includes other countries too. I find it hideous that the Russian Orthodox Church is talked about as though they only served the will of the Communist party. I grew up being told there were no Christians except the underground church in the USSR. Having met Russian Orthodox Christians of deep profound faith in Jesus Christ opened my eyes to a bigger view of the Kingdom of God. So how about we stop with that in the USA or any other country and let people express their faith as they best understand it and how the Holy Spirit is leading them? God’s Kingdom is huge and thankfully, God has given us all different things to be passionate about and support. I’d love to hear about what God has put on your heart but don’t belittle what God has put on mine and others. Republicans can be Christians. Democrats can be Christians. Libertarians can be Christians. And on and on…

I am not the droid you are looking for.

And as a Star Wars fan...I like R2D2 and BB8. They are NOT the same droids. They are unique and have their own gifts and abilities. Hopefully, one of them will be the droid you are looking for but then again maybe not. What I can tell you is that I am not a droid, a robot or a clone of anyone, anywhere.

Jesus didn’t call the fishermen, the tax collectors, the women, the prostitutes, the Pharisees or Romans oo anyone else to be robots either. He told them to leave their lives of sin and come and follow after a Kingdom which was bigger than any of our biases and convictions. Jesus reminded us that God’s house was to be a place of prayer for all people too, not just a select group. We are told in that Kingdom, wealth and influence and titles don’t get you a better seat.

Give everyone a chance to be themselves, to be amazing and to be beautiful. Let people surprise you as they change and grow and find the need to change and start fresh, once, twice, three times or maybe seven or maybe seventy-seven times (Jesus said that ought to be something we do too).

Go seek the the Kingdom of God first (Matthew 6:33). You’ll never know what you’ll discover then. Maybe it will be the droids you are looking for but I doubt. Those stormtroopers never did either.