It’s okay to be you. Maybe you have heard this before. But it’s true. You are the only one of you there is. It is foolish to try to be someone else.
This is not to say we shouldn’t learn from others. Often we can take skills and talents we see in others and adapt them to ourselves. This is advisable.
Nevertheless, each of us has distinctive qualities no one else has, and we should develop them.
I remember hearing an interview with Judith Durham, former lead singer with the Australian singing group the Seekers. I was impressed with her response to the question, ‘To what do you attribute the success of the Seekers?’
Her answer was clear and direct. ‘To succeed in anything, you have to find one distinctive quality that no-one else has and major on that. This is what we did. We found a sound that was different from anyone else’s and developed it.’
The Christian life is not a competition with others, but to be everything we can for God–this means using every talent he has given.
Whatever skill or ability we have, we are obliged to use it, otherwise the world will be the poorer for its absence. No matter who we are, we have something significant to offer.
To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.