Comparison. What a deadly, no-win game. All too often, I find myself playing it and never measuring up. I don’t do things like SHE does, so I must be doing it wrong. I don’t look like SHE does, so I must be less than. I don’t think like HE does, so my thinking must be incorrect. I don’t respond like THEY do or act like THEY do or talk like THEY do, so I must be defective. Can anyone relate?
We have a phrase at the consignment store that I stage at. “Unique and Different”. We’re looking for things that are unusual and have a personality all their own. Those are the things that grab people’s attention and sell. If everything we took in looked exactly the same, nothing would stand out. Sales would take a hit.
This morning my thoughts went to Jesus’ disciples. The people that Jesus specifically asked to follow Him. They could have, of course, refused. But they didn’t. They walked alongside and did life with Him. He knew each of them intimately and knew that each of them was flawed, but also that each of them had specific personality traits and gifts that would complement His ministry. He dealt with each of them differently. He gave each of them different tasks and responsibilities. He challenged them in their areas of weakness and used them from their points of strength.
He called the educated and the uneducated. The quiet and reserved and the loud and boisterous. Those whose faith was strong and those who struggled with doubt. Those who were hesitant and those who ran ahead. Twelve people whose only common link was Jesus Himself. Each had different backgrounds and histories that had contributed to making them into the people they had become.
Looking at the various personality types and giftedness of Jesus’ followers is an interesting study, and one that I found to be very, very encouraging and enlightening. It gave me greater understanding and grace towards the various styles and ways of others. And it gave me more peace that God can actually use someone like me, with all my quirks and idiosyncrasies. He’s done it before. Case in point, Peter.
Peter meant well. He wore his heart on his sleeve. He loved much. But he was quick to speak without thinking and often got his foot stuck in that gaping mouth. He promised things that he meant with all his heart but couldn’t always carry out. He was passionate and impulsive. He was fiercely protective. I think today we would diagnose him as ADD. Like an overgrown puppy with energy to spare and not enough places to use it.
Oh, Peter, I can so relate. Ideas flying everywhere and not enough places to land. Passionate and emotional. Failure to think things all the way through. Yes, Peter, I feel your pain.
And yet with Peter, like each one of Jesus’ other followers, a life spent with Jesus transformed those imperfections into things of beauty. It didn’t change who they were, but it took who they were and refined it into a usable resource. Jesus took the raw material and made it more valuable and beautiful. Something to shine in a world that so desperately needed and still needs its light.
Somehow, miraculously, Jesus took these flawed friends of His and used them to change the world. All of them different, all with something unique to offer. Each with their own issues and faults. But every one of them, in God’s eyes, a necessary part of His very good and amazing plan.
And that gives me incredible hope….
