The Square Peg and the Round Hole
You certainly know the old saying: You can’t put a square peg into a round hole. This idiom was created by a man named Sydney Smith as part of a lecture series that he delivered in the early 1800s at the Royal Institution on the topic of moral philosophy. Since that time, the expression has come to be used in a lot of different contexts. Some of the more common usages include:
- Identifying a person who doesn’t fit into society’s norm
- Finding yourself in a situation that doesn’t suit you
- Trying to do something that you don’t know how to do
- Identifying someone who is not capable of accomplishing the job or task they are doing
- Being out of your depth or comfort zone in a given situation
But there is another application that fits into the situation we find ourselves in as Christians these days. The values that the Bible teaches, and that we as Christians strive to follow, don’t always fit neatly into the values that dominate modern society. This is particularly true when dealing with politics. While Christian values do parallel the dominant values found in certain political parties and don’t correspond with others, there is no political party, or party platform, that corresponds exactly to the priorities of the Bible. The priority of our Christian faith truly is a square peg that does not fit into society’s round hole.
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