"You know there's a name for you," my doctor said. "You're an outlier."
The puzzled look on my face resulted in Dr. C. pulling a pen out of his blue starched shirt pocket. He grabbed a lab report, flipped it over and started drawing pictures. A bell curve and a grid appeared on the paper. "You see, most kidney patients fall somewhere on this curve or grid. We can expect certain symptoms to be present. We count on specific drugs to work effectively in a typical patient. We look for common progressions and responses among the majority of our patients. But we can depend on none of these things in you. Therefore you lie outside the curve or the grid. You are an outlier."
The puzzled look on my face resulted in Dr. C. pulling a pen out of his blue starched shirt pocket. He grabbed a lab report, flipped it over and started drawing pictures. A bell curve and a grid appeared on the paper. "You see, most kidney patients fall somewhere on this curve or grid. We can expect certain symptoms to be present. We count on specific drugs to work effectively in a typical patient. We look for common progressions and responses among the majority of our patients. But we can depend on none of these things in you. Therefore you lie outside the curve or the grid. You are an outlier."
Well you can only imagine the laughing and teasing and needling this has opened up for a certain man that lives in my house. It's the new favorite catch phrase to explain everything unexplainable in our home--"well, you're just an outlier (must be said with the tiniest bit of sarcasm and a smile)."
Lately I've been thinking about God's process of healing. I so desperately wish I could understand exactly what God is up to. I wish I could just do ten steps and be physically healed. But as I survey the scriptures, I quickly have to conclude that God is the God of the one-of-a-kind. He loves the unique. He values the distinct. God and His ways cannot be franchised. My journey will not look exactly like anyone else's journey. God's purposes and plans for me will not mimic any of His other children's plans and purposes.
There was only one Abraham and Sarah having a baby in their nineties and hundreds. There was only one parting of the Red Sea. There was one falling of the walls of Jericho. There was only one Jonah being swallowed by a fish and surviving. There was only Savior rising from the dead to overcome evil. Outliers--all of them.
While I find the mystery and lack of control that comes with being a God-follower very uncomfortable and disconcerting at times, I also take courage in that God is the God of the unexpected and the impossible. He can and does do the unpredictable. He is the lover of outliers!
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