kroddyrich.com

Before I start this, I want to give credit where credit is due with the topic of this post, and that is to Pastor Jordan. He delivered this past Sunday and completely disrupted my lineup of posts for today, but it’s fine. I just believe it to be a message people (myself included, of course) cannot hear enough. So, if you missed Sunday service, no worries, I got you covered. The message is going to be remixed a bit, but it’s going to be good!

So here it goes…

The athlete in me knows all too well about comparison, but I called it competing. Did I just blow your mind? It’s cool, you don’t have to tell me you are keeping me humble, and I appreciate you for it. But I almost blew my mind when I put those two words in the same context. Because I never realized how much I actually compared myself to others until I realized how much I compete and what I am competing for and with whom I am competing. I am the most competitive person I know, so it’s safe to say I do the whole comparison thing a little too much. Some will say that they are not the same thing, but I am here to tell you to sit back and let me cook.

I started playing sports at the age of 5, and before that, I was dominating my grade school kids in P.E. So, I can provide the perspective of an athlete and how much we compare ourselves to others. In return, we lose sight of who we are and how God made us. To start things off, we are always comparing ourselves to the greats in our sports, trying to mimic what they do in hopes that we become as great as they are. We compare ourselves to our opponents and even to our own teammates. We compare ourselves to those who have come before, constantly trying to break records that were set by them. Constantly comparing and competing with others will leave you with a feeling of never being good enough. Let me repeat that one more time for emphasis: Constantly comparing and competing with others will leave you with a feeling of never being good enough. I hope you understand the message here. Instead, be in competition with nobody other than yourself.

Especially being in a time that is so focused on social media, which almost forces you to constantly compare yourself to others. Better yet majority of the time you compare your reality with other people’s highlights. You are always caught up in the new trends, what other people are doing and saying, and you literally get influenced. I mean, come on, they call them influencers for a reason. Not to criticize that profession or anything, but they are not you, and what they are doing and what they look like should not concern you at all. My blog, for example, since it is a form of media and I do talk to you about life and what I do and so forth. I hope what you take away from everything I tell you is that I want you all to be nothing like me. I want to push you to be your most authentic self. I want to influence and motivate you to get to know more about you because it truly is a beautiful thing to just be you. Unicorn, not uniform, I like to say, but I am saving that topic for a different day. So don’t throw out the social media, just view it differently and don’t change based on what you see on it either.

So anyway, I give you the example of an athlete because, again, this is just my perspective and experience that I am able to offer you. But this message applies to anyone and everyone. There is absolutely no need or reason to alter yourself and the way God made you for the sake of someone else. “Our comparison struggles are a result of sin.” Think about that sentence right there because it is a heavy load and it is not for me to explain but for you to bring awareness to your own life and situation. You are a child of God, and what God says about you is much more than any comparison you have going on with anybody else. You were fearfully and wonderfully made, and that in itself is enough. You were born enough. You were born with a purpose, and that purpose is for you and you only…nobody else!

Can I get an AMEN!