sameness

To be conformed means that something is presently 'out of form'. It also means to be brought into sameness with something else. I recently wrote about the importance of living out our uniqueness. I still think that that is important, but I think that it must come underneath or alongside sameness. To submit to being formed in the shape of someone else--specifically for me, in the likeness of Jesus--requires a death--many deaths, in fact. But it also requires new life to be born. What must die first are my ideas about determining my own uniqueness--my self-rule and self-determination.
It is strange that in a culture so hell-bent on self-determination and autonomy, there is a sickening homogenization. Very few people today place themselves under the direction of another who will tell them what to do and lead them into places they would rather not go. The irony is that even this 'autonomy' is an illusion.
Wouldn't it be strange that the only way to truly be unique is to give up on the srive to be unique? If the only way to be different was to be formed in the likeness of someone else? If the only way to find your life was to lay it down?