Comparisons

Thought of the day:

Convincing others becomes so much easier have we have convinced ourselves. 

Comparisons

For the most part, most people will never struggle with feeling like I am un-touchable because my faults and imperfections are so visible they sometimes catch my eye like a glare off a windshield.  For the few who may have a tendency to compare others strengths to our individual weaknesses as I do, this is for you.

I suppose, for me, that when I first come to know someone it is easy for me to admire the good I see in them.  At a distance, it becomes easy to assume that they have all the things I have ever wanted or that they’re life is perfect: A beautiful house, the perfect marriage, and the inner strength to deal with every challenge that comes their way.  After a while I get to know them better and then I learn the first picture was an illusion from my rose-colored glasses.  After I get to know someone well enough to see their faults, I then have a decision in how I choose to see them.

It is interesting to ponder who we admire and why.  I have thought about the ones we admire on the ‘silver screen’ and see them larger than life.  We call them idols.  After some thought I have come to the conclusion that idols are someone we put up on a silver pedestal and conclude that we can never really become like them cause they are ‘too cool’.  We set ourselves apart as less than they are, and give them permission to allow us to feel inferior to them.  (As Eleanor Roosevelt said: No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.)  We consign ourselves to ‘google and awe’ from afar and give them glory by our admiration of them. 

On the other hand, if we were to find real every-day hero’s that we admire and want to become like, working toward that end, will we not in actuality attain that hope?  This is so much more powerful than deceiving ourselves into a false hope and worshiping idols.  We can change because we have the power to choose.

I am concerned that when you see the fruits of my harvest that you will mistake the genius of the Lord for my own.  I am concerned that when you see the effort and results I get that you will think that I am ‘un-touchable’ or that you could “never do that”.  It is God that inspires men and women with great ideas, and the power to do great things.  Anyone who thinks they do great things of their own power is just fooling themselves and the truth will be known in time.

In the world of athletics, it is unreasonable and unfair to compare someone who has been a weight lifter for years and years to someone who is just thinking about starting weight training.  Each individual has their own body, and each person has been in training for different amounts of time.  It is not a like-kind comparison and the result is a lie.

The thing that is amazing to me is that I have only been in my Garden School training for 3 years (having been spiritually awakened.)  As I look back on the last three years it is staggering to realize all that I have learned in relatively such a short amount of time.  I feel like it has been more than I learned combined in all the 30+ years prior to that.  When we learn to cast our net in the ‘one right place’ where the Lord directs us to cast our net, it is truly amazing what we can accomplish with His power. 

I remember how I used to be amazed by how beautiful the gifts of the spirit were in a person who had been spiritually awakened.  It was amazing and it was a mystery to me because I understood not the things of the Spirit.  I can’t tell you the countless number of speakers I listened to, both religious our otherwise, where I would look up to them and think that I was inferior to them.  I always had such a feeling of gratitude for their message, but I never felt ‘good enough’ to even be able to talk to them.  I dared not even approach them. 

The reason I’m telling you this is because if you feel this way, you need to know that I used to be exactly where you are.  And the distance between you to me is NOT an impossible chasm.  There is a way to cross it.  Have hope that you can learn to believe in yourself and become who you want to be.