Like Me

We have a strange tendency, I think. Humans in general tend to think that everyone else is just like them. Of course, the more you are exposed to other people, other places, other cultures, that doesn't seem to hold true, but in general we tend to think that way until we are radically convinced otherwise.

There's another part of this. Most of us tend to think, along with the above, that we're basically pretty good people. We're doing things right. We've mostly got it together. Oh, the better of us are knowingly aware of our shortcomings ... but what we feel is important to change we've mostly changed.

With part one above in mind and this part added, we end up in an interesting position. We often get a sense that "if you aren't doing what I am doing ... well, you're just falling short." This kind of thing comes from various angles. Someone immersed in politics finds that someone else isn't particularly concerned and they're befuddled. How can that be? It's important! Why aren't they? A person in "full-time ministry" might view "lay people" as "lesser" somehow. "Surely they aren't as learned, as informed, as dedicated as I am because, after all, I'm in 'full-time ministry' ... and they're not." And so it goes. This one works at missions on skid row to help the homeless and that one is busy trying to invite all his neighbors over for a Bible study and the other one seems to just kind of drift around and hug people who are sad and no one measures up to the other.

It's a mistake, you know. It's a mistake from the beginning. We are not all alike. We are all different. No one is the same as you, as much as you might think they all are. Further, you're not that good. We all fall short. We are not the standard by which others should be judged. (And the minute I say it you know it's true.) And, finally, we are not all doing the same thing ... by design. We are, in the Body of Christ, parts of the body. We are not superior because we function this way when others don't. Nor are we inferior because those others seem to be doing that and we're not.

No one is like me. That's God's design. Doing what God intends me to do is what I am supposed to do. You're not. You're supposed to do what God intends you to do. And I'm not supposed to do that. It all works out very nicely, actually. Now, if we can only keep that in mind ...