Creative Best Series - Part Six

Net's Notations Tuesdays
Creative Best Series - Part Six

Here’s the next line in our Scripture: (Galatians 6:4, MSG)

Don’t compare yourself with others

Walking the halls at a well-attended writers’ conference is enough to give you an inferiority complex, if you let it. You read the nametags of those you pass and right away accusations come to mind. “What are you doing here? Do you think you can write as well as ----? Who are you trying to kid?”

Ugh!

Reading can bring the same hazard. Pick up a book by your favorite author. She writes in your chosen genre. And she’s fantastic! You don’t read her books, you savor them. You devour them again and again. Her prose inspires you. But accusation comes: “I could never write that well! What am I thinking even trying?”

See how destructive comparison can be? Devastating.

Comparison results in two things:

~ Pride (if you think you’re writing better, which is rather subjective and therefore unsubstantiated)
~ Insecurity, which often leads to defeat

So why bother with comparison?

Sure, learn what you can from others’ work. Learn the craft. Study what they’re doing right and perhaps even investigate things you think they did wrong. But compare yourself with them? Nope. Forbidden.

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. (Galatians 5:25, MSG)

Just as you differ from others, your calling differs from another’s calling—even if they are called to write for God. You’d be comparing apples to oranges if you held up your work against theirs. It’s folly.

God knows what He’s doing. He calls us to all run this race of our Christian life. But all faithful servants of God win! Don’t waste emotional energy on comparison. Just be your creative best!