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Sep 14, 2021 08:00am

Stop Playing the Comparison Game

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I’m waiting for the day I become suitable for God. I hear about these good works He’s prepared for me, and it all sounds great in theory. But surely I have a long way to go until God changes me into something He can use.

I read the words, “we are God’s masterpiece,” (Ephesians 2:10), but there’s no way He means right now. Just as I am. Today. Right?

I for sure don’t look like her. You know “her.” The super Christian. She loves Jesus and, by all accounts, spends her whole life fasting, praying, serving, loving, and solving world hunger. She gets up at 4 a.m. to knead bread and milk goats. She sews and knits and whistles while she works.

That girl God can use. What an example to learn from. I watch her and admire her.

But there’s a point where admire turns into desire. Desire to be like her, not like Christ. Desire to structure my every move after her example. And when my loud mouth doesn’t match her soft words or my pizza night looks really bad next to her raw veggies, I attack.

What once was a beautiful example of God’s work in someone’s life morphs into the club in my hand and I beat myself up over everything I’m not. All the while God knows what He’s doing. Yes, He’s shaping, pruning, molding me to be more like Him . . . but not like her, like Him.

The fact is there is no mold, no rigid form we will all fit into. Instead,

. . . our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! . . . All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:18-19, 27 (NLT)

These two guys are my favorite example of this.

The guy on the right is my hubby, Luke. The guy on the left is his older brother, Josh.

On paper these two men are a lot alike. Similar size, speed, and skill set. Same parents. Same hometown. Same “little dribblers” team. And as adults, God called them both to play quarterback in the NFL. But it only takes a tiny bit of time to notice that with all the sameness going on, these two guys are nothing alike.

Luke is a bonafide country boy with a tractor to prove it. Josh tends to test the trends, like capri pants and an occasional change in hairstyle. Josh once sent Luke a new pair of blue jeans after he realized his little bro still sported the Levi’s from his college (maybe even high school) days.

In a crowded room Josh doesn’t meet a stranger. Luke picks a chair and sits down almost unaware of the crowd around him. But Luke watches Josh and how he connects with so many people in so many different ways. It challenges Luke to scoot out of his comfort zone a little. He learns from Josh, but he doesn’t try to be Josh.

And, as I understand it, Josh watches Luke. He admires Luke’s confidence in Christ and his boldness no matter the circumstance. It challenges Josh and he learns from Luke, but he doesn’t try to be Luke.

Two men, so much alike, but so very different, serving Jesus in the same role, but in very different ways.

And I believe God wouldn’t have it any other way.

. . . may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.” Hebrews 13:21 (NLT)

God will continue to make you more like Himself, but He already made you in His image. Will you be content with his workmanship?