“The grass is always greener on the other side.”

It’s not just our home’s yard we compare to our neighbors’, sometimes it’s the house, the cars, the lifestyle of the people who own the yard. We use other people for a measuring stick to how we’re doing in life. And we always seem to use a measuring stick that shows us we always come up short of others.

I was reminded of this recently during a conversation about comparison. 

Now, comparing ourselves to others seems only those in the secular world would deal with but, let’s be real. In America, we compare ourselves to everybody. In a Christian sense, our comparisons are not that we have as much as other Christians do, or others in our church do, it is a comparison about how we measure up as Christians. 

Am I doing enough? 

Am I giving enough? 

Am I going on enough mission trips? 

Am I volunteering enough? 

Am I as Biblically knowledgeable? 

Do I pray enough? 

Am I doing a good job raising Christian kids as the other parents in my church, as other Christians in other churches?

Oof. Forget about the anxiety in the secular world, we Christians can do a marvelous job of tying ourselves in knots wondering if we’re good enough to be a Christian. 

As the secular world’s measurement creeps over the line into our Christian lives, we probably recognize the angst we’re creating in and for ourselves with comparing ourselves to others inside and outside of church. In all candor, I am guilty of comparing myself to others more often than I would care to admit. And then when I do feel really secure in my identity, social media reminds me again to compare my life, my call, and my gifting to someone else’s. Thanks, Mark Zuckerberg.

Sure, I’ve been convicted of this comparison conundrum plenty of times in my life.  I know, I know, Scripture says don’t envy, don’t covet, be thankful – we have all heard these things, but I still do it. However, what the Holy Spirit showed me each time I wished for a different gifting then my own that I was ultimately denying what He gave me. I was saying that I did not believe I was fearfully and wonderfully made. I believed deep down that God gave them something better… and me something less. Ultimately, I believed something about God that wasn’t true.

Wishing for someone else’s gifts or calling is like telling God He made a mistake, but we know God doesn’t make mistakes which means we were meant to be who God made us to be, not someone else! And, somedays, that’s easier said than lived because we are surrounded by a society obsessed with recognition and fame where everyone wants to be the quarterback. But if everyone was the quarterback no one would ever win a super bowl because there needs to be ten other players on the field to successfully execute the coach’s plan. A team only gets to celebrate such an accomplishment because everyone plays their part.

Eric – a member of our marketing team – recently shared with me an anecdote about how his wife struggles with this issue. Eric told me his wife compares herself to others in a way where she is always diminished, where she can never win in her own eyes. His admonition to her – and mine to you – is, “Keep your eyes on your own paper.”

We are all meant to play a part in this world and for God’s Kingdom. He gave you your exact personality, your intelligence (and there are 9 types of intelligence) to be used as a vessel in the way only you can. 

No one is going to do it the way you will, with your exact voice, and your exact personality. 

No one is going to fulfill your purpose the way only you can – and we can’t fulfill the purpose God has for us if we’re wanting to have someone else’s.

The Bible says we are a body with Christ as the head.

We all have our part, and without each part, the body doesn’t work as effectively. The arm doesn’t spend its life trying to be the hand. The arm does what the arm is supposed to do so the hand can do what the hand is supposed to do. The arm cannot function without being attached to the body and the hand cannot function without being attached to the arm. And no matter how glamourous the part or function is (you don’t think your bottom is jealous of your heart and your head, do you?), the body cannot operate effectively unless every part of the body is doing what it was designed and purposed to do.

And this is how we, as believers are to work so that together, we will be a functioning body, doing the part God called each of us to do. We are equal but different. God made us unique but collectively working wonderfully toward the same goal. As Bill Johnson says, “if you really knew who God made you to be, you would never want to be anyone else.” Why on Earth would you want to be anything but what God made you to be?

Friends, He does not make mistakes. 

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

On purpose. 

He gave you a uniqueness that only you have. 

There is a purpose for your life here. He gave you your personality combined with gifts and talents to be used in a way that only you can. It’s easy to wish we were gifted differently. It’s easy to look at someone else’s life and wish we had a little more of this or that. But remember that there is a reason and purpose for exactly who you are, and God is calling you to use it for His glory!

2 Corinthians 10:12 – “Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.”

In other words, “Keep Your Eyes On Your Own Paper.” God knows what He’s doing. And that’s good enough for me.