Sometimes I think we go through phrases like a flavor of the month. It’s popular now to tell people “Just be you”, “You do you” or whatever is trendy for the time being. Those phrases are used to reassure people that they don’t need to be like someone else. They’re their own person. I agree, but perhaps the reason we all compare ourselves with others from time to time is that it’s one way of seeing ourselves more clearly.

Often we don’t take a sharp picture, though. We skew it in favor or against ourselves; hence, the trendy phrases. But the better part of us yearns for a sharper focus.

And yet, measuring ourselves next to our contemporaries has the potential of blurring things more than clarifying them. A real comparison can’t be made simply by contrasting ourselves with those around us because we might be living in a time when there are a lot of bad folks making it easy for us to look pretty good. It makes more sense and will encourage us to step up our game to consider people throughout history, and only then take a look to see how we stack up. In our efforts at clarity, we do well to examine the lives of people better than we, ourselves, are. As we look at those people, we can acknowledge they had their weaknesses, their sins, their times of veering off track. We also must acknowledge that they learned from those times. Pointing at someone who seems worse does us no good and shows weak character we’d do well to curb, besides. Ready to take a peek? I’m warning you, it’s not pretty. These days nearly all of us look pretty pitiful and surprisingly inadequate.

When we evaluate what possible kind of reward we will be given, I don’t know about you, but I feel like the only place I should be is at the back of the line. We get to determine how we live our own lives. Do we live in such a way that someone years from now will look at our lives and be impressed or simply unmoved?

If any of us has a choice between having the lowliest job in heaven or “dwelling in the tents of the wicked”, I know which one I choose.

The thing is, I never wanted to be that person. You want someone to do all the things required to keep something running like a well-oiled machine? You need someone to run errands for someone else? Be part of the cookie brigade? Do janitorial work? Sit quietly with someone? Excuse me while I find their phone number for you.

Yet these days that’s exactly where I find myself. I pick up coffee and a breakfast sandwich for someone who can’t do it herself. I shovel a walk. I clean. I sit for four hours every week while college kids come in to the church for quiet study space and free coffee and snacks. I bake. I talk to strangers. To my dismay, I find that I am a doorkeeper.

Sources: Rev. 22:12; see also I Corinthians 3:13-15, I Cor. 4:5, II Cor. 5:9-10; Images: Pexels.com