When it comes to what you do with your life... how you earn a living... where you're gifted, can you be OK if you don't fit in with the norm? You know. Are you typical?

Truth: Some among us (maybe including you or someone you love) just won't, can't and never will fit the typical career and education mold. In a world that loves to bring clear definition and categories, some are NOT standard.

Admittedly, I do it too. I meet a college senior in the hot tub and ask him what he majors in and what he's going to do when he graduates. Easy for me, he fit "categories." Bio major. Pre-med. Plans to be a pediatric doctor. Oh good, I know what those are and what those do. Phew.

However, in a world that loves easy definitions, what about those who don't fit easy categories? Do they matter? Maybe a lot?

Trader Joe's now makes Cookie Butter. Putting some on a spoon, my friend Amy introduced it by saying, "Just try this! Where does that even fit a category??" She's getting all her friends to try it!

Then, there's the latest Cronut rage in New York City that has hundreds of people lining up before Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho even opens.

What's a Cronut? Well, it's sort of some dunut-croissant hybred that doesn't quite fit a category either. Yet, hundreds of people line up before the shop opens and may wait up to two hours to get some! Some get sold on e-bay for higher prices!

Might some of the most valuable (0r future valuable!) people around us be Cronuts? They don't quite fit the regular molds. Knowing some: they often feel somewhat out of sorts because they don't fit the corporate mold ... or the entrepreneur mold... or the minister mold... or the teacher mold... or the sales mold..... They just don't feel like they fit.

They ask things like:

• Who am I?

• What am I called to do?

• How can I make a living AS ME?

And they wonder if they were put together correctly! Yet, in the Psalms, David writes,

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:14)

If God didn't make a mistake when He made each of us, that means there's a place for the "Cronuts" among us! Do you believe this?

"Cronuts" have gifts that can change the way we do things, see things or experience things, maybe even the way we follow God or see our work.

But "Cronuts" are not typically developed in environments that value test standardization, right answers and regular ways of working. Many places and people (even spouses at times) can become bent on "steering them" to "normalcy" or "getting them" to just get to do it the regular way.

Some of the most important people in our world mix things that tend not to, or even never to, be mixed.

• Financial people who care about the well-being of people AND their money. They create retreats instead of typical between a desk and a spreadsheet hour-long meetings.

• Business people who want to raise people out of poverty AND increase marketshare.

• Creative people who use creative art educate those who can't learn in typical environments.

• Pastors who love make and sell whiskey and invite people in for a taste and a talk about what God is really like. (met one last week!)

Who are they most like? They're actually most like.... themselves.

And, yes, I believe that helping raise or train a "Cronut" involves some great wisdom and grace. Educating them even more!

But, please, please let them learn how to find their way into a world that doesn't get them... at least yet.

IT IS OK TO BE A CRONUT! MORE THAN OK!

Chime in below:

Are you a "Cronut?" Are you the parent of one? Are you married to one?

How can we create a world that helps... instead of crushes "Cronuts?"

And please share this with someone you think needs to hear the message: your gifts and WHO you are is NOT a mistake!