Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.
Earlier this week, this post about enjoying each other’s gifts rather than feeling bad if we don’t measure up was on my mind — I’m not sure why. Actually, I was thinking about how I would adapt it for a talk, and I really don’t know why that came to mind, because it is not something I plan on doing! But just a few minutes later when I had devotions, I came across this very timely quote along the same lines on page 154 of Hoping for Something Better: Refusing to Settle for Life as Usual, a Bible study by Nancy Guthrie. This is in a section discussing Hebrews 12:1-2:
We’re not competing against each other: we’re encouraging each other. We’re competing against Satan, the world’s system, our own flesh. Let’s keep our focus on the race marked out for us, not on those around us.
As we each run our own race in the Christian life, we don’t need to measure ourselves by each other, either feeling proud when we do better or inferior or deflated or depressed if we don’t do something as well as someone else. The Bible tells us it is unwise to measure ourselves against each other in that way. We need to run the particular race God has set out for each of us, exercising the gifts He has given us to the best of our ability by His grace, and keep our focus on Him.
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Stray Thoughts 
It’s all about keeping our eyes on Him.
Have a good week, Barbara.
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Barbara — amazing. I just spent some time thinking about much the same thing — only I was comparing what I do in this community to what I did in my last community to what I did in the one before it … and my positions seem to be losing prestige. I’ve had to remind myself that I am meeting needs, not starring in a show.
I’ve been reading “The Dangerous Duty of Delight” by John Piper and he shares a quote by C.S. Lewis that I love: “If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”