This is a story about being true to yourself. Throughout human history, people have attempted to Define their neighbors. This was aided by the precepts and standards issued by any society, be it a town, State, country, or part of the world.

Due to such pure pressure, individuals have folded and become what others wanted them to be, and thus, lived only part of their true lives.

Then, there have been the radicals, the Renegades, the outcasts, the weirdos, branded as such because they either rebelled against the status quo or their lives went against the grain of what was expected, leaving behind a legacy or gone on to be the unsung heroes of their time.

I believe the one thing above all else that caused most people to give in to society was the need to survive. After all, one could not eat without playing by the rules. One could not have shelter, for that matter. Thus, having these things was the beginning of achieving a sense of responsibility. And who didn’t want to feel like a mature responsible person?

Yet, I also believe that those who lived according to a deeper conviction had something all the others didn’t. They had faith. That deep conviction was so powerful that they couldn’t ignore it, even in the face of ridicule and persecution. They saw such actions against them as petty judgements having short-term implications, while they were able to look beyond at something that I can only describe as a type of liberation.

Freedom.

A part of being able to strive for that freedom was that these individuals expected the ridicule, knowing those who persecuted them wouldn’t be convinced of a life outside of societies precepts. At best, society would see a spectacle and nothing more.

Rebelling against society wasn’t always a good indicator that an individual was walking the right path for themselves, though that deep conviction tugging them forward was always and will be a mystery that can only be justified by faith. Not logic. While logic is our ally, it cannot take us into the broader realms where faith frees us to do so. It is and always will be those secret realms where we’ll grow in the truest sense of being alive.

Such growth can only have one implication, which is that of the Eternal.