Mile 772.4/1000

What is good, my friends?

Out on my 1000 Mile Walk with God today.

And for those of you who know me, you know I have a condition in my left eye. It is called intermittent exotropic strabismus, which is a very fancy way of saying that sometimes my left eye gets bored and wanders outward to find its own adventure. Basically, a sometimes-outward lazy eye, which means all of my focus is out of my right eye until I wrangle it back in by closing my right eye.

I've had it since birth, had a couple surgeries over the years, and it has kind of become one of the hallmarks of my teaching. Those who had me in seminary or institute know this well. 😄

The Testimony Meeting

Years ago, I was serving as a bishop in a brand new ward. During our first testimony meeting, a man I didn't know came up from the left side of the chapel. He smiled at me. I thought, "All right, go ahead."

He got up and bore a beautiful testimony. And then he said something like:

"I don't come to church very much, but I'm so grateful for our new bishop and for his inspiration and wisdom. He's been staring at me, and he knew I needed to get up."

And in my mind, I thought: I was not staring at you, brother. But my left eye may have been holding its own private interview. 😄

After his testimony, I quickly stood up and explained to the ward: "Hey, just so you know, I have this thing with my left eye. Sometimes it drifts outward. So if it looks like I'm staring at you, I may not be. Or maybe I am. Good luck figuring that out."

And we all laughed.

Something interesting happened. It stopped being awkward. Once it was out in the open, we could just have fun with it.

Lazy Eye Candy

Over the years it became something I joked about with my students. On the first day of class I'd basically say: "All right, let's get this out of the way. What's my left eye doing?"

At one point, one of my sons had a similar issue, and when we went to the eye doctor, the doctor looked at me and said, "You know, we could fix yours too." So I went back to my seminary class and asked my students what they thought. "Should I get it fixed?"

They all said: "No! Why would you do that? Then you'd be like everybody else." Which was both kind and mildly insulting. 😄 But they were right. It had become part of me.

A couple weeks ago in my Institute class, we were talking about church callings, and I joked that my calling at the time was "ward eye candy" because I led the music in sacrament meeting. One of the students immediately said: "Don't you mean lazy eye candy?" I laughed so hard. Everybody laughed. It was perfect.

Making It Cool

But then something happened that made it even better. There was a young man there who had come for the first time that week. I didn't know him yet, but it was pretty obvious he also had a lazy eye.

The next week, he came up to me and said: "Hey, I've kind of been self-conscious about my eye for a long time. But thanks for making it cool."

That hit me.

Because sometimes the very thing we think is weird about us — the thing we feel self-conscious about, the thing we're tempted to hide — may be the very thing God uses to help someone else feel seen. Not everything has to be polished, hidden, or fixed before God can use it. Sometimes our quirks, weaknesses, scars, stories, and awkward little realities become bridges for other people.

Don't Hide Your Weirdness

So my little thought from today's walk is this: don't hide your weirdness. Not recklessly, performatively, or to make everything about you — don't just turn it into an awkward "rehab" session. But do it faithfully. Let God use the real parts of you to bless real people.

Because someone out there may need to know they're not the only one.

Thanks for being part of this little B.O.M.Socks community. I'm grateful we get to walk through faith, family, humor, scripture, lazy eyes, visible quirks, and real life together.

Oh, and if you have a lazy eye — drop me an email, it would be fun to swap funny eye stories.

Godspeed!

Derek Crimin
B.O.M.Socks CEO and Excellent Sock Model

P.S. If you'd rather listen or watch this one while you're out on your own walk, drive, or morning routine, you can watch the short video version here.