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Have you ever looked at Facebook or Instagram and wondered why your life is so boring compared to your friends? Maybe you felt like you were worth less because you didn’t get many “Likes” on your photos. Or you may have found yourself daydreaming about movie stars or singers and what you would do if you had their money, popularity, or beauty. This type of comparative living can make us feel we are less valuable. It feeds discontentment for where we are in life. Because our lives seem boring, we feel less meaningful.
In the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the main character is portrayed as having a boring life because all he’s ever done is faithfully work, support, and care for his mother and sister. He needs to do some exciting and noteworthy things to build his dating profile. Without some excitement, he’s not considered a person worth getting to know. The more “cool” things he does, the more his dating value goes up.
1. You don’t need to do certain things or look a certain way to have value.
Thankfully, we don’t have to be popular, rich, attractive, healthy, or successful for our lives to have meaning. Instead, God has given humans an objective purpose for their lives—“the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q.1). The chief end means that every little thing, humanly significant or not, is to serve the ultimate purpose of glorifying God. Mankind has a purpose, and it’s God-centered.
God’s word says human life is important because he has made men and women in his own image. God does not call us to compare our lives to others’ lives to find significance and worth. Instead, he created us with value (Gen. 1:27) and a purpose. God made people with many gifts and abilities, and all these skills were ultimately to be used to glorify him.
Humankind was the pinnacle of God’s creation, and we hold an important place in history and before God. You are special because you are made in the image of God. No matter what you look like, what intellect or skills you have or don’t have, which popular (or not-so-popular) crowd you hang with, or how big your paycheck is every month, you are special and have purpose.
2. God loves his children just the way they are.
Most of us have felt at some point that we have to impress people to be loved. Making ourselves likable or attractive in some way is often how we think we will make people like and love us. Unfortunately, it is often the case that people do look at our outward looks and our achievements before deciding to engage with us. However, it isn’t this way with the most powerful being that exists.
God knows our wickedness, brokenness, and ugliness, and he loves us anyway. Ephesians 2:1-7 states that we are not good people and were even living in ways that were against God’s commands (Eph. 2:1-3). Yet, because of his love, God takes us as his own to love and care for us (Eph. 2:4-7). Even though God’s love can’t be earned (Eph. 2:8), he sent his Son to die for all who would believe in Christ’s name. In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes,
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You don’t need to get stuck in the downward spiral of social media competition and comparison that can never satisfy your deepest needs. You don’t have to get bogged down by trying to make yourself more beautiful or popular in an attempt to be loved or please people around you. Don’t waste any more time daydreaming about being someone who is famous or rich.
3. You are free to live an ordinary life unto God.
Instead, live freely knowing that you are made with a value that cannot be erased or altered—as a child of God, you are loved forever. You can then embrace the world around you with the goal of pleasing the one who loves you unconditionally. You can focus on finding and using the gifts he has given you for his service, knowing that you aren’t trying to earn anything, but are secure in Christ’s love.
The words of the apostle Paul give us much helpful guidance on this point:
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (1 Tim. 6:6-11)
As God’s child, you have a heavenly inheritance that can never be taken away, and one day you will be like Christ, the one who is truly beautiful. You will always have a place in God’s love and will be fulfilling his purpose for you as you love and seek to bring him glory in all.
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Ayrian Yasar is associate editor of Beautiful Christian Life.
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