Stuck in a Lie

I think you and I have bought into a lie, and it’s crazy destructive. This lie says tells us we are behind, that everyone else’s life is perfect, that we need to catch up. We see perfectly curated photos and captions on social media or we hear the highlight reel of someone’s life over dinner or coffee or on a podcast, and the lie screams a little louder.

These days I feel this deeply. I’m preparing to launch a book into the world as this unknown author who is just trying to follow Jesus. All the advice I hear is about numbers—getting more social media followers, interviewing on more podcasts, booking more speaking engagements and book signings and everything in between. Comparison screams at me from its shadowy corner of my heart and tells me I’m so behind. I feel overwhelmed by where I am and where I’m supposed to be, and sometimes, I don’t know how to move forward.

I’m supposed to have thousands of social media followers.
I have 500.
I’m supposed to book dozens of publicity events or interviews.
I’ve done 5.
I’m supposed to have this massive buildup for a book that will launch with thousands of other books this year.
But I’m relatively unknown, and I’m not sure how to get from here to there. And on my worst days—which have happened more frequently than I care to admit—I do nothing.

On those days, I forget God calls us to the process—to the slow unfolding. He didn’t call us to achieve that huge dream today. He called us to this present moment, to say yes in the here and now. Every day, He asks us to start where we are.

That’s it. Start where you are. Where else could you?

The Beauty of the Process

This lie, this comparison game we play with everyone around us, is a disaster. When we play it, when we listen to the voices in our head that tell us we’re behind or can’t catch up or that we might as well never start, we’re playing right into the hand of an enemy who longs to confuse us and make us question the One who called and created us. I believe this is one area Satan wins the most—keeping the people of God stuck simply wishing or dreaming or talking about what God has called them to. So many of us live here because we’re afraid that where we are isn’t good enough, and we don’t really know if we trust the process.

I am a distance runner. I love the feeling of training for and running long races—half marathons and marathons. To me, running is the perfect picture of the process and of starting right where you are. Training for a long distance race—truly training for it—takes months. It means spending week after week putting in mile after mile. In the beginning, running 1 or 2 or 3 miles feels impossible, but on race day, I hardly notice them. This is the process—that slow unfolding. And the only way to get to race day, to the place where the little miles are bearable, is to start where you are. God didn’t design our bodies to run marathons on day one. He designed us to say yes in the little moments and to embrace all the little steps it takes to reach where we want to go.

Start Where You Are

So friend, keep dreaming and reaching and hoping for that big goal that feels impossible right now, but don’t let it suck you into the comparison game or feel overwhelmed by where you think you should be.

Start where you are.
Say yes to what the Father has given you right here.
Take one little step and trust the process He will unfold before you.

What about you?

Where do you feel fear or comparison has too loud of a voice in your life?
What’s something the Father has asked you to say yes to in this season?
What does starting where you are look like for you?