It tastes like chicken

I've discovered three new fruits here - naartjies, granadillas and marulas. Naartjies are a type of tangerine, I guess, but the other two are not remotely similar to any fruit I've had before.

It's funny how we try to describe a new taste by comparing it to others, as though it is inconceivable that there are new flavours our tastebuds have not yet encountered. I could say that a granadilla looks like a pomegranate (sort of) and tastes like a cross between and orange and a pineapple (sort of), but that wouldn't be doing it justice. A granadilla tastes like... a granadilla, and there are just no comparisons to be made.

Or take meat. People say that crocodile tastes like chicken and that ostrich tastes like a leaner version of beef. Why can't ostrich just taste like ostrich? Why do we have to convince people that it tastes like something familiar in order for it to be acceptable enough to try?

I think sometimes we do that with Christianity as well. Must we all "taste like chicken" in order to be accepted in the church? Why can't we seem to accept that everyone has different gifts and different roles within the Body of Christ. That's what makes the Church so amazing. I can't help but think we've watered down the vibrancy and effectiveness of our witness by valuing conformity. "If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be." - I Corinthians 12:17-18

I dare you... no, I triple dog dare you... to be who God made you to be! Stop tasting like chicken and dare to be your own unique flavour. God knew what He was doing when He made you.