Hi there, my name is Taylor Murray. I am Kara’s OLDER sister. Yes, I am the older sibling. And yes I know she looks older than me and is probably more mature but that is a story for another day. Kara asked me to write a blog post and told me I could write about anything under the sun. I know most of you would rather hear from Kara (as would I), but I wanted to write about something that would at least be relatable to the audience. Do any of you ever struggle with comparison? Part of me wants to believe it is a struggle I will grow out of, but I am quite sure I will wrestle with this my entire life. So lets talk about comparison for a second here.
Maybe you have the same problem, or maybe it’s just me, but it can be hard for me to watch Kara’s journey and not fall into the comparison trap. Don’t get me wrong, I love hearing about all of her experiences and I am so happy she gets to be on the Race. But, my mind is so quick to remind me of all the good work Kara is doing, and then to point out how insignificant my daily life can feel in comparison. Sometimes I think that Kara and her team are called by God to be world changers, while God has left me to my everyday life. I think it is clear that He chose them and sent them because He believes in them, but then I tell myself that I am some lesser form of chosen. However, the Bible tells us that “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us” (Quote by Augustine, but this message is also in the Bible, so..). To live in this trap of comparison would be to deny the very character of God. Just as the World Race team has been chosen and anointed to do good work, so have you and so have I. Our work is not what qualifies us; we are qualified by the blood Jesus shed on the cross. He poured out his life for us. Each of us. I know that I am still Beloved, and God has just simply called me to something else for this season, just like He has called the Racers to their work in this season. Falling into the trap of comparison is to tell God that I do not trust Him with my life, and is to doubt who He is. He is faithful and merciful and just. He does not play favorites because we are all his favorites. He loves each and every one of us, and that is not changed based on our season or vocation.
The Broken Way is one of my very favorite books. It was a slow read, but once I finished it I knew it had changed me. The author writes with such a gentle and authentic conviction of how to live into our brokenness. In it she writes, “You may believe in God, but never forget – it’s God who believes in you. Every morning that the sun rises and you get to rise? That’s God saying He believes in you, that He believes in the story He’s writing through you. He believes in you as a gift the world needs.” Did you hear that? The God of the universe believes in YOU as a gift the world needs. Each and every one of us play a significant role here on Earth. He believes in the good work in you, and He promises to be faithful to bring that work to completion. She doesn’t say that God believes in only specific groups, but He believes in each one of us as if we were the only one. If you hear nothing else from me today, hear this: You are chosen by the God of the Universe, and He has big plans for you. These plans are not limited by our ordinary lives. God calls us to the ordinary, and asks us to trust Him for He is faithful and wants you to live your life abundantly.
Here comes another quote, so sorry….but Matthew Redmond, author of the God of the Mundane, tells us, “We think the small, mundane, ordinary things we do each and every day are worth nothing before God because they are worth nothing to the gods of this world.” So many of us are called to live ordinary lives, but that does not mean we are any less special to our Creator. We hear about Kara doing street evangelism and praying for strangers and playing with babies and digging deep into Scripture. Why can we not also experience this kind of life? Kara and her team are living a life of abundance not because of where they are or their vocation, but because they are digging deep into who God is and demanding He gives them more of Himself. Can we not live this way too? When you are tempted to compare your life to anyone else, or when you fall into the trap of the ordinary by telling yourself your life is without meaning…I challenge you with this: ask God to reveal Himself to you in a new way. Tell Him you want to experience more right where you are at. Do not fall to the temptations of this world by constantly striving for bigger and better and more impressive. Instead, celebrate the life of the ordinary and mundane by searching for God in your every day life. God wants to meet you when you make your bed and do the dishes and pick up groceries and take a nap. He is always working, and He wants to be experienced by you. He is available to all of us, and He loves you as if you were the only one.
Thank you for reading! 3 more months until Kara comes home, get excited people! Continue to pray for her and her team. Pray for health and for people to meet Jesus. But also pray for yourself. Pray that you would experience God more fully right where you are at, and pray opportunity to spread the Gospel. God is a big fan of who you are right where you are at…lean into Him and trust Him. I promise it will be well worth it.
