There was a famous tailor named Hans. Because of his reputation, an influential entrepreneur visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick up his suit, the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged and the other caved in. He pulled and struggled and finally, wretched and contorted, he managed to make his body fit. As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor had made the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply the man remarked: "Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you."
Application: Discipleship. Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like - then we push and shove people into the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully!
Application: Conformity, Worldliness, Christlikeness, Image of God. Scripture calls us not to be conformed to the standards of the world but rather to be conformed to the image of Christ. The world tries to squeeze us into its own mould, telling us that this is what a human life should look like. It is often however a gross distortion of the image God would have us bear.
Source: Leadership Magazine Spring 1983 (Quoting R. Foster in TSF Bulletin Nov-Dec 1982)