I am different, sometimes crazy, I am more volatile than most, I am a little louder at some points and much quieter than anyone at other times, I feel things strongly, I don’t idle well, I dance and sing VERY loudly.
Sometimes people would tell my parents, it was because of these letters:
OCD-I do crazy things for no apparent reason, and become VERY frustrated when the things I deem important are out of whack.
ADHD- I never, I mean NEVER sit still, I am always moving, tapping, squirming, fidgeting.
ADD- In the middle of talking to you, I will every now and again, zone out and my eyes will drift to the corner of the room, and my mind will temporally change channels.
ODD- I will fight about things I don’t even care about and sometimes I will talk back and if I feel strongly, I will NEVER give up my opinion.
and oddly enough, Synesthesia- I hear colors, see music and was very surprised than not everyone did this.
This sounds like a lot of letters that mean one thing: I’m a boy.
But I now know, it is just the way God made me.
From a very young age, my family, and especially my mom, knew that this boy (me) was different. I was the third child of four, the youngest boy, and the son of popular christian writers. I had a lot to live up to and people were always watching me and had opinions about how “I should be handled.”
So…I was a fighter, but also a lover, but also a fighter.
While most kids would eventually learn to sit still, I simply could not. It is actually a skill that to this day I have not mastered, even as I write this my legs are swaying back and forth beneath my desk and my head is bobbing to the music in my head. As a boy I seemed to always push the limits, I found more pleasure in climbing rocks and rolling in grass then walking on sidewalks. I couldn’t (and still can’t) do much math, but, I could keep a perfect beat to any song. If you asked me to spell (please don’t) “Chrysanthemum” I would instead, draw you a picture of it, complete with story line about how it got there and the hero that had to rescue it from dying!
I was passionate, creative, but I soon became painfully aware that I wasn’t normal. As I grew a little older I remember being yelled at by multiple teachers, in church or a coop class for “Talking to much” and “Resisting to learn.”. I can even now so viscerally feel the deep frustration at my lack of ability to understand schoolwork that seemed so easy to everyone else. I can still feel the sting of hearing one more “SHHHH Nathan, settle down.”
I began trying diligently to fit into a box, just to avoid more frustration and criticism. What I didn’t understand at the time is that God had purposefully made me out of the box. He had made me to be creative and fun, to love people and to perform. He had actually created me to tap my fingers and sing loudly. He had made me to know Him in a completely different way-but just the way He wanted. Another famous out of the box guy once said.
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm: 139-14
What? I’m was fearfully and wonderfully made? It was when I realized this truth that I started the journey to understanding I was exactly how God made me! That it was not just a mistake that had to be changed, and molded to fit the standard child. I wasn’t just some accident, but rather, I was designed this way!
The thing is, we are all going to feel different, like we don’t fit into the boxes of our friends, family, church, schools, pop culture, or the boxes others try to put us in. But that’s because, to be honest, God hasn’t called us to live in any parameters that anyone else has designed. But rather, He wants us to love and embrace the beautiful design He wanted us to fulfill.
My family, my Mom and my Dad figured this out little by little, and ever since, have supported me and cultivated and encouraged me in the areas where I delight and excel. They also helped me, lovingly and patiently, with the ones where I struggle, so that I could be the man God had in mind. It was a mysterious process and journey that we walked together by faith, because I know my parents believed I was God’s gift.
So I implore you, if you have a Me, a Nathan, keep reminding yourself and your Nathan, that God has made him just the way He intended, with a specific plan in mind. Remind him that all of the “loud” is not to be quieted, but rather, it is to be used to shout the things God has for us to say.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesian 2:10
The story below is a picture of how God longs to meet with the out of the box, crazy, loud, boisterous me, and when I was 19, He spoke to me clearly and I finally realized what He wanted me to do.
I was faced with a decision when I was 19. Let me explain. I had moved out and was living in the Big City (New York) on my own. I remember it was a cold and rainy night, my family had left to go back to Colorado. There I was, little old (well actually very, very young) me. I had no idea what I was doing and I was all alone. But there, on my first night out on my own, as I was sitting on my Ikea bed in my small apartment bedroom in Harlem (Yes… I know the family wasn’t thrilled, but I was poor), I heard a voice. It was God, He said “Chase me!” and suddenly He ran out the door and into the pouring rain. I yelled after him that I was cold and alone and was kinda tired, but He just kept running.
So there I was, faced with a bigger decision than I could ever imagine, the choice was clear: Chase after God, or do what I felt like. Well I chased God, I chased him right into the pouring rain-where I danced and sang with the Creator of the universe. I chased him through the next year of ups and downs, friends and heart-break, hurts and joys. I chased him right out to Hollywood, California, where today I’m finally able to look back at all the chasing of God and say with complete honesty… It has made all the difference.
I wrote a book about all that God taught me.These are a collection of thoughts and the glimpses of God’s wisdom I had to chase down, and all compiled into my very first book. I would love for you to become a Wisdom Chaser too. Click to get your very own copy and you will read the story of how God has worked in amazing ways, and how He has taught me the wisdom of living for Him. Thank you so much.
I would love for you to buy and read more of my first book called Wisdom Chasers and give it to a young man, who you hope will become a wisdom chaser. And, maybe, it will be an encouragement to you, to hold fast to Him, to chase Him wherever He leads, and to find all you were hoping for in life in the chasing of Him.
Whether you are a Nathan or have one, be encouraged.http://www.WisdomChasers.com
Off to climb on rocks, roll in grass, sing loudly and chase God.
-Nathan J Clarkson
In a time of stores filled with red cut out hearts for sale.
This weekend, I had the opportunity to go and see the new romantic drama, "The Vow," staring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. This movie will be coming out a few days before Valentines Day.
I have a confession to make, I Nathan J Clarkson have been lying to you.
There are questions we all have, they are big, really big, bigger than us, but are afraid to ask them. We put on a facade we hope emanates enough confidence in the certainty of our answers, that no one will see through to our doubt.
But why do we hide our questions? why do we feel the need to look as if we know it all or have it all together? I don't, and I'm willing to wager...NO one does.
It was Christmas eve and I was eleven years old. Around the house were smells and sounds of years of Clarkson traditions coming to life. But there was only one thing on my mind…All the loot and awesome stuff I would be getting the next day.
What do these three stories have in common?
