“Deja vu occurs when we encounter something new, but it feels as if we’ve seen it before. Vuja de is the reverse – we face something familiar but we see it with a fresh perspective that enables us to gain new insights into old problems.” Adam Grant
I’m reading Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant and you should be reading it too. People who are “originals” reject the default options of human history:
- Suffragettes rejected the default notion that women can’t vote.
- Rosa Parks rejected the default notion that people of color must sit at the back of the bus.
- Kelly Oxford (and countless others) rejected the default notion that “locker room talk” about assaulting women is okay.
Consider what this might mean if we countered what has become the default narrative for the Church:
- I do not accept that the Church is irrelevant.
- I do not accept that all Christians are homophobic.
- I do not accept that the Church must be segregated by race and ethnicity.
- I do not accept that denominations cannot be transparent, permission-giving, creative, honorable, and inspiring.
What about you, my original friends? What new narrative can you imagine? What will you no longer accept?
Are we ready to consider Vuja De?