Barney lied. If you raised your kids singing with the lovable purple dinosaur, you may need an adjustment in your thinking. Because his song “Everyone is special” is not truth. By definition, everyone cannot be special!
Before you assault me for cartoon heresy, let me assure you that I believe God’s Word teaches us that everyone is VALUABLE. But not special. “Special” is defined as “ better, greater or otherwise different from what is usual. “ Therefore it is impossible for every person to be special! Every person is indeed valuable , being made in the image of God, and therein worthy of dignity, respect and love. But “special” – no, we are not all special. We must reject that notion because it inevitably leads us to think that we (or our children) are the exception to the rule. Think about where that kind of thinking leads!
As the exception, we can live by our own rules because the rule common to all does not apply to us. We deserve different accommodations, treatment, and consideration from others because we are “special”. We should not be subjected to the same requirements as others and should be free to please ourselves regardless of the impact on those “not special” others. How deceitfully enticing it is to want to be our own god! It is easy to see how chaos ensues from that!
The lie perpetuated by Barney also leads us to be deceived about how tough we have it. We think our trials and tribulations are so unique that we deserve either pity or commendation. We are tempted to tell our story (perhaps even exaggerating the extent of our difficulty or at least being myopic in our perspective!)in hopes of eliciting either sympathy for how hard we have it or admiration for making it through . When the listener attempts to offer a more balanced view of the situation, we often protest with “you don’t really understand”. We spend much time and expend much energy defending our justification of how different (difficult) our story is and trying to garner the appropriate response. Being special is actually exhausting!
What does God’s Word say about such “special-ness”? That it doesn’t exist! I Corinthians 10:13 exhorts us “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man”. COMMON! Not special. The Greek word that we translate as “temptation” is “peirasmos” and comes from the word that means “experience”. Contextually, the word is telling us that whatever is happening to us has happened to plenty of other people and we need to not consider ourselves so special!
Instead of being deflating, this should instead encourage us. We are experiencing what numerous others have also experienced and the good news is that more than plenty of them survived! If they can do it, so can we. In the first epistle attributed to the Apostle Peter, he says in chapter 5 to resist the devil “knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world”. This is followed by the glorious promise in verse 10 “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you”.
No, we are not “special”. But we who are in Christ are indeed “set apart” and counted worthy to be strengthened and established and transformed by circumstances “specially” designed for our sanctification and His glory. Amen.