Through the Looking Glass

Do you ever find, in your conversations with God, that you sometimes get stuck in the same theme for a while?  All your questions and wonderings, all your thoughts and prayers are linked together with the same underlying "problem"?  I've been stuck for some time in the same circle, it wasn't until recently (within the past few days) that God revealed what was at the center.  You see, I have a crush on this guy...never mind the details, that's not the point...and it has come to my attention that a friend has a crush on the same guy.  Now focus, here's the point: I find that I am comparing myself to her.  In my mind I have listed all the things that are better about her and all the things that are better about myself...not even knowing if the guy has a care for either one of us!  Does this honor God?  Does my comparison and evaluation of this sister in Christ honor the Father?

We do this often, don't we?  Compare ourselves to others.  It's a natural and common problem to have.  Consider 1 Corinthians:

"For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be?" 1Corinthians12:19

 

There is always someone who has or is the very thing we wish we could have or be...We often have the feeling that something is missing or lacking in some way.  Thinking "If I could only be like..." "If I only had..." "If I could just get..." Going back to the notion that we can put God's puzzle together ourselves...without His model to follow.

God's word says that the whole body can not be an eye...we as Christians are one body.  Created in the image of the most high sovereign God as individuals and as one body!  By the very nature of God's creativity we can not be the same...if we were all the same we would all serve the same purpose and some things just would not get done.  Comparing myself to a sister (or brother) in Christ is like the ear comparing itself to the eye.  We are both created in the image of God and both given a specific purpose within the body and therefore it is necessary that we are different!  Specifically created each for our purpose.  Likewise, being created in the Image of God we are to reflect only one thing.  GOD!  God created man in His image, Christ came to earth as a man, the very church is a picture of the BODY of Christ!  When we look into the mirror, our ONLY standard of comparison should be Christ!

When Christ is our only standard, it becomes much easier to work as a unified body to accomplish the purposes of God's kingdom.  The body needs each unique member to function the way it was meant to.  And, sometimes, in our uniqueness is where we find our intimacy with God!  I'll be honest, this is not easy.  It's a constant battle to keep taking our thoughts captive to Christ...lifting up each and every concern that plagues our consciousness with open hands to surrender them to God.  If we are not careful, we can form our identity in trying to be something different that what we are.  Let's not get carried away with "what ifs."  Find your identity in Christ!  Embrace who He has created you to be!  When you look through the looking glass into who you are, find yourself uniquely fitted into Christ's body, in a place only YOU can fill, and carry out your work as for the Lord using only Christ as your point of reference!