Can I ask you a strange question? Who would you be if you stopped comparing yourself to everyone else? Think about that for a second. Who would you become if you weren't trying to be the best employee, the best parent, the best leader, the best Christian, the best entrepreneur, the best version of somebody else? Because if we are honest, most of us spend our lives measuring ourselves against people we were never created to become. We compare our beginning to someone else's middle, our weaknesses to someone else's strengths, our behind-the-scenes to someone else's highlight reel, and the crazy part is we don't even realize we're doing it anymore. Comparison has become like this background music of our lives where it's continually whispering, "You'd be happier if you were more like them," or, "You'd be more successful if you had what they have," or, "You would finally be enough if you look like them or earned what they earn or accomplished what they've accomplished." But what if comparison has been asking you the wrong question all along? What if life isn't asking, "Why aren't you more like them?" What if life is asking, "Why aren't you becoming more like you?" And that's what I wanna talk to you about today Welcome to Pilot Light. I am your host, Josh, and you know most people aren't looking for another self-help podcast. They are looking for a reminder, a reminder of who they are, a reminder of what matters, a reminder that their story is not over. So wherever you're listening from, whether you're driving from work or you're looking for your phone while it's somehow still in your hand or pretending that folding the laundry counts as cardio, I'm really glad you're here. Let's light the pilot light I have always admired people. I love learning from them. I love studying leaders. I love listening to audiobooks. I love listening to podcasts. I love trying to understand why certain people seem to have such an incredible impact on this world. And that curiosity has been one of my greatest gifts in my life But it's also became one of my greatest traps because somewhere along the way, admiration quietly turned into comparison. You know, maybe you've experienced that you hear someone speak and you, in your head you're thinking, "Hmm, I wish I could communicate like that." Or you watch a leader that just has confidence, and then you start thinking, "I wish I had that kind of confidence." Or you meet someone who's incredibly organized and you're going, "Man, I wish my brain worked that way. I wish I was wired like that." Or you see someone with a huge platform and, and suddenly you're thinking, "I wish people listened to me the way that people listen to them." You know, at first, those thoughts, they seem really harmless, but eventually they actually become exhausting because without realizing it, you're measuring your entire life against people who were given a completely different assignment. You know, I remember thinking, "If I could just be a little more like them." But one day something hit me. If I spent my life becoming someone else, who was gonna become me? You know, thinking back to all the different podcasts and audiobooks I've listened to and self-help people and religious leaders and, and all these different people that I looked up to and, and tried to emulate and, you know, thought, "Okay, if I just learn whatever it is, then it would fix this particular area of my life, or I'd become better at this, or I'd have success in this area." And I remember getting to the point where not only would I want to follow their program, but also I would try to find out what were they doing in their life to become that. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think looking towards people who, um, do great things in this world and, and we can w- emulate certain parts of their lives. But when we start comparing our lives to theirs and trying to do the things they do without becoming ourselves and following after them rather than following what God has for us, that's where we miss it. You know, one day I realized something, that God has never asked me to become someone else, not once. He didn't go, "You know what? That person over there, Josh, maybe you should become like that person." He's never said that one time. He made me a certain way. He didn't create me by accident. He didn't give me my story, my personality, my strengths, my scars, my experiences so that I could spend my life wishing that I had someone else's. He gave me those things because they were a part of my assignment, and suddenly comparison didn't just seem unhelpful, it actually seemed disrespectful, not towards other people, toward my Creator. Because every time I wished I had someone else's life, I was overlooking the gifts already sitting in mine given to me by my Creator. So here's the big idea. Here's what I've learned. You'll never discover your calling while chasing someone else's. Hold onto that statement there real quick. Let me read that one more time. You'll never discover your calling while chasing someone else's. Think about fingerprints. There are over eight billion people on this planet. B with... billion. Okay? There are over eight billion people on this planet. No two fingerprints are the same. Why would we assume our calling is supposed to be? God seems to delight in originality, yet we spend so much of our energy trying to become copies. The world doesn't need another version of someone you admire. It already has one. What it doesn't have is you. So here's my first point: comparison makes you forget your own story. Comparison is incredibly selective. It only shows you what someone else has. It never shows you what they carried to get there. You see the confidence. You don't see the years of insecurity. You see success. You don't see the sacrifice. You see influence. You don't see the failure. You see the fruit. You don't see the roots, and because of that, comparison is always dishonest. It asks you to compare two completely different stories. My second point: your story is your credential. One of the things I'm learning is this: the parts of my story that I used to hide are often the very things that God wants to use. The divorce, the rebuilding, the mistakes, the failures, the fear, the questions, the uncertainty. Those aren't interruptions to my story. They are my story, and people don't connect with perfection. They connect with honesty. Your greatest qualification may not be what you've mastered. It may be what you have survived. Here's my third point: God never calls copies. One of my favorite things about scripture is how different everyone is. David doesn't sound like Paul. Paul doesn't sound like Peter. Peter doesn't sound like John, and Moses isn't Joshua, and Esther isn't Ruth. God doesn't recycle personalities. He redeems them. He doesn't erase individuality. He breathes purpose into it. You know, maybe the reason your voice doesn't sound like someone else's is because it's not supposed to. Maybe your influence will come not from imitation, but from authenticity Can I ask you a few questions? Who are you comparing yourself to right now? Whose life makes you question your own? Whose success secretly discourages you? Now, here's the harder question. What has comparison caused you to neglect? Your gifts? Your voice? Your story? Your calling? Because every minute spent wishing you were someone else is a minute you aren't becoming yourself. So here's my challenge. This week, I want you to stop comparing. Not forever, just this week, just for seven days. When comparison shows up, I want you to replace it with gratitude. I want you to write down three things that make your story unique. I want three strengths that God has already placed inside of you, three experiences that have shaped you who you are. Then I want you to thank Him for each one of them. Not because your story is perfect, but because it's yours So to close this out, I, I wonder what would happen if we stop trying to impress people and just started trying to become faithful. Faithful to our story, faithful to our gifts, faithful to our calling, faithful to the life we've actually been given. Maybe that's what freedom looks like. Not becoming someone else, but finally becoming yourself. Because the world doesn't need another copy. It needs the original God had in mind when he created you, and maybe, just maybe, that's who he's been inviting you to become all along. Hey, thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. If this conversation reminded you of someone who's spending too much time comparing themselves, pass the flame. You never know how one conversation might help someone rediscover who they were created to be. And also, before we go, I wanna ask you for two quick things. First of all, if, if Pilot Light has encouraged you, would you take a moment to follow the podcast and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify? It may seem like a really small thing, but honestly, it helps this message reach more people who might need a little light in their life. And secondly, I want to hear from you because Pilot Light was never meant to be just a podcast. It was meant to be a conversation. So if you want to, go to my website at mypilotlight.com. Send me a l- message or leave me a voicemail. Just go to the fan mail portion on the website there, and you can leave me, literally a, leave me a text, or you can leave me a voicemail on there and, and tell me what your story is. Tell me what challenged you today. What encouraged you today? What did you do differently because of what we've talked about? Or most importantly, who did you pass the flame onto? Maybe you shared an episode with a friend, or maybe you encouraged someone who needed it. Maybe you had a conversation you had been p- been putting off, or maybe you chose to show up differently today. I want to hear those stories, and some of them may even end up being shared here on the website or included in a future episode because you never know how your story might light the way for someone else's. So remember, a flame was never meant to be kept. It was meant to be passed. So keep passing the flame, and as always, see farther, live deeper, become who you were created to be because you were created to be a fire, not just a flicker. Keep the pilot light on, and I will see you next time