When I was in high school, we had a substitute teacher in gym class one day. Back then, every class had assigned squad spots on the gym floor (is that even a thing anymore?). The substitute hadn’t arrived yet, and everyone decided that since we had a sub (you know, word gets around quickly), the rules didn’t matter. Instead of sitting in our squad spots, the entire class climbed onto the bleachers. Everyone except me.

Now, before you think I was some super brave teenager, I wasn’t. I just remember thinking it felt kind of mean to make a substitute teacher’s day harder on purpose. So I stayed where I was supposed to sit.

When the substitute walked into the gym, she immediately started telling everyone to get into their squad spots. Nobody listened. In fact, people kept waving me over and saying, “Come sit with us!” Then she started yelling. It was going downhill fast. Then something strange happened. I noticed the expressions on everyone’s faces suddenly changed.

At first, I thought maybe something terrible was happening behind me. A lion, a tiger?? I turned around expecting to see some kind of emergency. Instead, I saw the principal. And he was NOT happy. Let’s just say everyone on those bleachers earned themselves detention. For a week. That day taught me something: sometimes doing the right thing means being the only one doing it. That’s not a great feeling, if I’m being honest. Nobody likes being the odd one out. Nobody likes feeling different. Nobody likes being the only one who doesn’t go along with everyone else. But sometimes that’s exactly what courage looks like. There’s a story in the Bible about Daniel and his friends. 

They were living in Babylon, far from home, surrounded by people who did things very differently from the way God had taught them. The king offered them food from his own table. Everyone else was eating it. It would have been easy to do what everyone else was doing. But Daniel and his friends chose differently. They didn’t make a scene or start an argument. They simply decided they weren’t going to go along. They knew it wasn’t right for them and said that they wanted to only eat fruits and vegetables, instead of the king’s rich and delectable food. They were the ones who stood strong. And God honored that.

Maybe your moment won’t involve a king’s palace or a gym class. Maybe it looks like being the only one who doesn’t download the app, or the only one who doesn’t laugh at the joke, or the only one who doesn’t join in on the gossip, or the only one who doesn’t repost something hurtful. Those moments may seem small, but they matter. The pressure to fit in can be powerful. Your character is built in those moments when you decide who you want to be.

In fact, God never asked us to blend in with everyone else. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” That’s a fancy way of saying just because everyone else is doing something, doesn’t mean you have to. Sometimes walking with God means making different choices, or standing alone for a moment, or being the only one sitting in your squad spot. And that’s okay. 

Because you weren’t created to copy the crowd. You were created to follow Christ. So the next time you feel pressure to go along with everyone else, remember: You don’t have to be the one who follows. It’s okay to be the one who doesn’t!