Stop Trying To Be Someone Else
It’s not hard to do, is it? We forget who we are and try to be someone else. Sometimes it is intentional, sometimes it is not.
It’s so easy to imitate what we see others finding success in, and then try to do that ourselves. But God has designed each of us uniquely with gifts and talents that He has bestowed to us individually. No one else has what you have. Think about that for one moment. There is only one you. And God made it that way.
He wants you to do what only you can do. He has dreams for you that only you can fulfill. You are his poem, and he longs for you to live out the lyrics he has written for your life.
But we get so caught up in what others are doing, how others look, the words others say. We try to imitate their formula for success, and get discouraged when it doesn’t work for us like it does for them.
Could it be that we are traveling a path not marked out for us?
My friend, Lacey Sturm, puts it this way in her book, The Return:
“Without God’s direction to know his purpose for the gifts he gives, I often make a mess of them. When I bring my gifts back to him, he is excited for me to discover the potential for glory he has hidden in each one.”
Here’s the thing: You matter. Nobody else can do what you can do.
But we must first know God’s direction for our lives, otherwise it’s so easy to stray off course. I imagine none of us want to make a mess of our lives. We long to fulfill the purpose He has for us, and that can only take place when we stop trying to be someone else.
If you, like me, truly desire to be all he has created you to be, here are a few things that will help keep us on course:
Delight Yourself in the Lord
There is no better cure for the insecure heart than to turn it’s focus upon it’s Maker. He framed you in the secret place of your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:15). He knows what will best suit your needs. He knows what will bring you the most joy. He knows YOU.
That’s why the Psalmist can say, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (37:4) When you focus on Him, His desires for you become your own, and you pursue what He wants you to pursue. You become who he made you to be.
View Yourself as a Co-Worker in God’s Service
The beauty of the body of Christ is that we each have a unique role to play. The bride of Christ is designed to work in tandem with all its members. This body is not about one member being honored above another.
The "head" does not have celebrity status simply because it possesses more IG followers. The "eye" does not gain precedence over the hand because it has a speaking schedule booked two years out.
We are all part of one another, sinewed together with the blood of Christ himself. And as such, we are “co-workers in God’s service” (I Cor. 3:9).
See Every Gift as a Potential for Glory
Who you are, the exclusive gifts he has bestowed on you, can be a gift back to him. They become a beautiful offering of a life lived poured out. A life that does not look at what the person beside her is doing, because she is so focused on the race marked out for her.
She is a beautiful example of what it means to be her true self, in every sense of the word. She bears fruit in season, and returns that fruit to her Creator so that he may receive glory.
This life is not about us. It is all about a Maker who made each of us to be our unique, beautiful selves. Stop trying to be someone else. And fall into your true self, the you that only you can offer the world.