We want to be like everyone else...

From the Lord's perspective, in 1st Samuel chapter 8, the people were rejecting God and not simply rejecting Samuel's family when they asked for a king. God told Samuel to warn them about the consequences - about the taxation and other costs and responsibilities of having a king... but the people still replied, "We want to be like the other people around us."

What a tragic ambition! The whole point of being the people of God is that they were special, chosen, supposed to stand out as being different from the people around them. But no, they wanted to be just the same as everyone else.

How much is that still a temptation for God's people today, in the 21st Century? How willing are we to be different in the way we think, speak, dress and act? Or how much do we want just to "fit in" and be like everyone else? It's been two thousand years since the early Christians were encouraged not to conform to the world around them, but instead to allow God to completely transform them so that they stood out as being noticeably different from other people. (Romans 12: 2) When we really search our hearts today, are we eagerly seeking transformation or do we prefer conformity? Do we dare to be different or do we want to be just like the other people around us?

Like the Israelites' decision to have a king, conformity can be our choice... but it will always come with a price tag.