Today I sat down to write a blog and was STRUGGLING to find the words I needed to express my point. I wanted to talk about a verse from Ecclesiastes, but all my words fell short of what I was trying to convey. As I was sitting, typing, and deleting, a thought popped into my head. A thought that knocked the wind out of my “I love to write” self. “What would ChatGPT create if I just typed in my request?” So of course, curiosity in this newfound technology, got the best of me. I popped on the internet and typed in my one sentence to ChatGPT and within a second got a beautifully written essay about Ecclesiastes 8:9-10. I literally couldn’t have written it better if I spent all day writing. And for a moment, I was tempted to post it. I mean, what harm could come? It is for a good cause; it’s spreading God’s word in a much more concise and beautiful way. But then I was hit with conviction: Those weren’t my words, and I could never pretend otherwise. And it wasn’t the plagiarism that convicted me the most. It was that I wasn’t using the gifts GOD HIMSELF had given me.
I feel like today, we are met with constant untruths.We ask ourselves, what is real behind our screens? Filters that hide wrinkles, perfectly planned Facebook photos and spotlessly curated homes. It’s hard to know what is behind the lens that is capturing the unrealistic reality that we compare ourselves to. There may be a beautiful family photo, but how many frustrations happened in getting everyone to sit still and smile pretty? (We’ve all been there.) And that beautiful home? If you were to span left, it might show a pile of laundry on the dining room table higher than Mount Everest. We truly never know truth when it can be skewed in such intentional ways online.
Everything that we are hit with daily, this world of perfectionism, not only steals our joy with comparing, but it dulls the shine of the gifts God has given us. It leaves us questioning,
Why doesn’t my family look that happy?
Why can’t I have a marriage like that?
Who keeps a house that perfect?
Why aren’t my kids excelling in life?
Why can’t I do *fill in the blank* as well as that person.
Comparison is the thief of joy. And so often, we compare our “worst” to someone else’s “best.” And in doing that, it takes away from our own beautiful gifts that God has intentionally created within us. 
Romans 12: 4-8 says,
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
We are not meant to hold every gift within ourselves. We need each other to glorify God to the fullest. And this means, we won’t always “shine” in the areas that other people do. And that is ok! Don’t let comparison steal your joy or make you question the gifts God has placed within you! Use what you have and use it to point others to God. That is all we are tasked to do! And if laundry is piled up on your dining room table, but you have shared God with someone, that is the only important part! Don’t forget that not everything we see in this world is truth and don’t let someone else’s shine take away from the good you can do with the gifts God has entrusted to you!
