I went for a jog in India (the first one in weeks since I had been sick), and as I ran around the soccer field dodging small frogs and the uneven ground, I thought about what do I do that glorifies God the most? What do I do that is just for God? Not for anyone else, not even for myself. Just Him. I can’t even say praise and worship because-if I’m being honest-sometimes I do that more for my soul than to honor Him. Serving others? That, too, is never just for the Lord; there is always another party involved. Nothing is wrong with these things, but He was asking me to dig deeper. What do I do that is just for Him and no one else? And what I came to was simple; art, especially writing. I don’t particularly enjoy painting or writing poems or drawing or trying to write. It all is actually a pretty miserable process. I feel like I’m just tripping and stumbling and then, somehow I land on something that isn’t necessarily awful and I dust off my hands and accept what it is. But from thinking on this idea, what He revealed to me was even bigger. We were created to create and when I compare, I stunt that creativity.
Probably, reading this, you’re thinking, “Duh; you’re not the first one to come up with this.” And I know I’m not. But I want to meditate here on this idea. We were created by the ultimate Creator, in His image. Part of His image is that of Creator. We were created to be like Him and He made Himself fully known in creating all of creation. That includes us.
“For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through Him and for Him…” (Col 1:16)
We are more fully known by our Creator when we create. To create means to bring forth newness into the world the way He did when He spoke light out of the darkness (John 1;1-2). When I create something, I invite Him into an even deeper part of me; a part of me that He made me specifically to do. Me only. It is the same when I write or paint; He is in my heart and my heart comes out onto the blank page that sits in front of me, therefore He is in the brush strokes. Like a mother and her toddler’s stick figure drawing; her heart flutters and she coos with delight at receiving it because her baby made it and she sticks it on the fridge with pride in here eyes. He loves what we make, even if to us it is barely average. But to Him, we are the apple of His eye (Zech 2:8) and He dotes on us just like the mother who dotes on her 3 year old’s drawing on the fridge (Zeph 3:17). His child made something for Him and He delights in it.
The chief end of man, do you know what it is? John Calvin said it was to glorify God. Then, John Piper added that we do that best by enjoying Him. He added, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
With this in mind, it is important to note that we weren’t made to be duplicates, either. We weren’t made to repeat what any other on this earth has ever done. They make machines for that; machines that can print millions of copies of the same piece of thing onto paper. We weren’t made by a machine; our uniqueness cannot be replicated. To try and copy someone else is to sell ourselves short for who God made us to be. In His image He made us; in His likeness. Not exactly like Him, but close. And so we, not all exactly like the other, are uniquely made for a unique purpose. And all of us combined are creating the brush strokes for the giant canvas before our Father. Together, we all express the Glory of our God. It’s why babies keep being born, why slaves are set free every day; we each have a piece of the painting that cannot make our God fully known without that person’s stroke in it.
And so, what is there to be gained from comparison? If we are all uniquely made to be used in a perfectly unique way for a unique purpose that cannot, nor was never made to be duplicated, why do we compare our lives to others? Why do we compare our looks to others? I say comparison is the evil that was found in the apple in the Garden at the fall of man. It caused Adam and Eve to feel shame because they were comparing themselves to God and realized how far short they fell against the perfect God who created them. We compare good against evil now because of that very moment. In that first moment of comparisons, we lost what it was to be completely free in and with the Lord. That freedom wouldn’t come back until the Cross and even since receiving it, we find challenges as believers to truly embrace that freedom daily, and walk in it. Instead, we find other things to put in front of God.
Idols that once were made of bronze in the shape of a calf now come in a million and one different shapes and sizes. Money, our body image, jobs, relationships, etc. What is the motive behind all idols? It is not because we think we will gain something if we have these things, it’s not even because we think it will bring us ultimate peace and happiness. What it comes down to is that we want to show off these things. Let me tell you; idols would not exist if we were the only human on the planet. There would be no one to compare ourselves to and hoard over them our accomplishments. We place so much emphasis on what others think of us and forget what the Lord of the universe thinks of us. We are the apple of His eye and the first thing He asks of us is to have no other Gods before Him (Exodus 20). Would I seek money if there was no one making more than me? With cooler clothes and cars and things? Would I seek after all of that if I truly felt fulness and completeness in the Lord? Would I seek to have the perfect body if I never saw someone else’s perfectly toned legs and arms? If I truly believed I was loved just the way I am by my creator, would I desire more from myself? I am not accepting the fulness of His love and the completeness found in it when I put an emphasis on anything outside of Him.
Relationships are good. Jobs are good. Having a healthy body is good. Money can also be good. To love your neighbor better than yourself inserts comparison in a healthy way; we should never stop seeking to be better than who we are now. In the Bible, it doesn’t say to love exactly the way Jesus did or the way our neighbors do. It says to outdo one another (Romans 12). Love your neighbor more than yourself (John 15). But we should stop seeking to be better than our brother or sister who is sitting next to us. That is why it is the second commandment. The first is the reminder to keep your focus on the Lord and stop considering anything better than Him, and the second is like it but opposite; consider others better than yourself by loving them that way; selflessly. Remove comparison altogether by admitting that you are no better than them. Those two commandments remained the two things Jesus pointed to when He was on earth. He fixed the fall by removing the gap between us and God, but to keep that gap closed, we still have to love the way He did and quit putting any other things between Him and God.
Compare yourself to God and you will always fall short. Recognizing the gap between ourselves and Him should bring us to our knees because, despite our inadequacy and infant tendencies, He chose to close that gap for us. He sent someone to die for our own foolishness. Compare yourself to others and you will always feel empty because in doing so, we are creating an idol and furthering the gap between us and God. He promised that we would face trials in this world, but He also promised freedom if we just become slaves. Seems counterintuitive, but it is the truth. In becoming a slave to Him, we find freedom because in that moment we remove all the chains the idols of this world put on us when we had tried to serve them (1 Peter 2). And we unite with our brothers and sisters around us when we stop trying to be better than them and instead look to better them. What if we helped with the brush strokes of our brothers and sisters instead of trying to inhibit them or compare ours to theirs? Imagine how much more beautiful and cohesive the painting would become.
The Lord hands us the brush sometimes and says, “Do what I made you to do.” What is that thing that makes you feel most alive? That feels like love oozing out of you? It doesn’t have to be “art.” Art is literally defined as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination” (Mariam-Webster). We are all artists, and the canvas looks different for everyone. For an engineer, it looks like an intricate machine with many working parts. For a doctor, it looks like someone healed because of a new way to treat a deadly disease. Ask Him if you don’t know yours yet, He wants you to know. And if you do, what’s stopping you?! The world is missing out if you withhold it from us!
