Unka Glen

chaiivee asked: Hey Unka Glen!! got an issue I’m pretty sure others have sometimes too. So in the Bible we learn a lot about these people that God used in such mighty ways, Moses, Joseph, David, Esther, Paul, the list goes on. Sometimes in my walk I feel like those are the goals. Be a Paul, or be a David. I have a friend and I LOVE HER, she just seems SO on top of her spiritual life and is bold, speaks for justice- reminds me of Nehemiah. What’s your advice when you sorta get almost jealous of a sister in Christ?

Unka Glen answered: Always good to hear a question from my favorite poet. In this case though, you’re not talking about goals, you’re talking about expectations. And the difference turns out to be quite substantial. 

If your goal is to be more like David, and you start becoming more and more like David each day, then each day is a joy, you move from strength to strength, and every step toward that goal is a victory, no matter how small.

If your expectation is to be like David, or Paul, or whoever, and you aren’t anywhere near the kind of believer that Paul was, then you’re a failure. You’re waiting for that day when you are good enough to declare victory, and every day you fall short. In the end, jealousy is all you’re left with. Expectations are about pass/fail, goals are steps along a journey.

A lot of us in this Christian life have a picture in their head of how they want to be perceived, and how they want people to react to them. This isn’t an ego-driven thing necessarily, it’s just a little movie we play in our heads where we say certain important things, and people react in certain grateful ways, and everyone is blown away by the spirituality that’s going down. 

But you’d be infinitely better off to simply seek to become the one who God created you to be. Forget about being a poor imitation of Paul or David, and forget about being a poor imitation of that made-up picture in your head. Be you, because you are someone utterly unique, created with a unique purpose in mind.

By all means, look at David’s courage and ask God to give you that courage, look at Solomon’s wisdom, and ask for that kind of wisdom, but God has already built into you certain gifts and abilities and tools that neither of those men had. The world is full of bad imitations of Bible characters, and (Lord help us) bad imitations of mega-church pastors. What we really need is for you to be you.