{"id":309,"date":"2017-06-13T12:16:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T12:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=309"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:16:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T12:16:49","slug":"makes-different-will-mark-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/06\/makes-different-will-mark-destiny.html","title":{"rendered":"What Makes You Different Will Mark Your Destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ehud was an Old Testament character known primarily for the fact that he was a left-handed man (Judges 3:15). You can almost imagine the taunts of the kids growing up, the laughter at his expense, perhaps even the regret by Ehud that God had made him different than everyone else. But what made him different ended up marking his destiny.<\/p>\n

Years later, Israel was oppressed by the neighboring nation of Moab and God raised up Ehud to deliver them. Bringing tribute to the Moabite king, every Israelite was checked for weapons by the Moabite guards. But they only checked the left thighs, the thigh where every right-handed man kept his sword. But Ehud wasn’t right-handed, and so his sword strapped to the opposite thigh got in past the guard. He got the Moabite king alone and killed him on the spot, leading to the deliverance of his people. What made Ehud different ended up marking his destiny.<\/p>\n

I moved around a lot growing up. By my fourth grade year I was on my fifth school. While I used to wish I could stay in one spot, moving so often forced me to make new friends easily and helped me have a heart for those on the outside, because that used to be me. Now that I’m a pastor, that serves me incredibly well with new guests coming to our church. What made me different has marked my destiny.<\/p>\n

What is it about you that makes you different? Is it a personality quirk, your past mistakes or something unique about your current lot in life? Allow what’s different to mark your destiny. Own what makes you different. Stop blaming God for it and start thanking Him.\u00a0Lean into those differences and leverage them. God made you different on purpose for a purpose. Let what makes you different mark your destiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ehud was an Old Testament character known primarily for the fact that he was a left-handed man (Judges 3:15). You can almost imagine the taunts of the kids growing up, the laughter at his expense, perhaps even the regret by Ehud that God had made him different than everyone else. But what made him different…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[184,183,182,172],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-destiny","tag-different","tag-ehud","tag-old-testament"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Makes You Different Will Mark Your Destiny - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Instead of blaming God for what makes you different, you should be thanking Him and leaning into those differences to mark your destiny.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/06\/makes-different-will-mark-destiny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Makes You Different Will Mark Your Destiny - 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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