Stop.
Right now.
You have to.
The scariest game a creative person can play is the game of comparisons. You will NEVER win this game.
It’s especially scary on Sundays. We work hard to prepare for Sunday. We put in a lot of hours to create our best work. Then, thanks to twitter, FB, Instagram or whatever social stream we are rocking, we sit back and have a real time view of what all of our “friends” have created.
And so it begins.
We are inundated by voices that tell us we are not good enough. Voices that say our messages are not strong enough. Voices that say our sermons or worship sets won’t move people closer to God. These voices make us doubt our content, our effort, and our execution. These voices have no right to exist in our heads. These voices are not healthy, and they are surely not God’s voice. These voices leave us feeling empty, devalued, scared, and unsatisfied with our work. We begin to wonder why we didn’t have “that idea.” These voices cause us to doubt our value and the position God has placed us in. Why didn’t we use that song in our worship set? What if we would’ve created that lighting scene on our stage? These voices fill our head with the wrong type of “what if questions.”
The truth is this: you are not your “friends” and your “friends” are not you. Stop comparing. My friend Jon Acuff talks about how we often compare our beginning to someone else’s middle. Comparing Cross Point at 8 years old to Willow Creek at 20+ years old is just not fair. Still, we do it every day. Especially on Sundays.
So today, instead of comparing yourself, believe in yourself and your team. You are creating the right experiences for your audience. You don’t have to be that other guy, or that cool church, or that super creative chick…it’s not just okay for you to be you…it’s necessary! Instead of comparing yourself to others on twitter, cheer them on. Deep down – they are just as scared and are probably comparing themselves as well.
