HAROLD KELLER

God’s own peculiar people I’ve heard it often said, referring to people, that he or she is a peculiar person. Peculiar means different, strange; not normal. I’ve been out of the Navy now for more than 45 years. I served four years, three years and six months of that being on a destroyer, the USS Saufley EDDE 465. Don’t worry. I’m not going to relate a war story. The only action I saw was in the barrooms, running around with the so-called normal people, getting drunk, being vulgar and what I thought then, really living it up. Our ship carried about 260 men. Most of them, like me, were never considered peculiar. We were a part of what the world called normal. Our behavior was not strange or different. After all of those years, this week, I kept thinking about one of the men on the ship. I don’t remember his first name, but his last name was Sellars. Believe me, he was a peculiar sailor. He stood out among all the rest. In fact, He was so peculiar that many of the crew made fun of him. He never neglected his duties. His shoes were always shined. He was neat and always stood out at every inspection. This, in itself, made him different, but what troubled many people was that he never used vulgar language, never told or listened to dirty jokes and, to top that off, every Sunday when we were in port, he left the ship with his Bible under his arm and went to church. Talk about peculiar! He was a very peculiar shipmate. Today, I realize that being peculiar is how God wants all believers to be. God is very specific in the Bible when He says in Exodus 19:5 – “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine.” Little did I realize at the time that this pecular shipmate was one of God’s treasures. I Peter 2:9 reads: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The reason Petty Officer Second Class Sellars stood out among all the rest of us as peculiar is that he was a light to the darkness most of the crew walked in. I haven’t been in contact with this shipmate since my discharge, but somehow I would like him to know, wherever he is, that his Christian walk touched me. Being peculiar in the world can be negative, but in God’s family, it’s a positive. HAROLD KELLER writes this column as part of his affiliation with the Get High on Life religious motivational group. Call him at 652-8477.