When I used to get my hair cut in Uganda, I’d sit upright so the stylist could snip my curls. But inwardly, I slumped.

She had a lot to say about which global workers were doing things “right.” Perhaps she meant to be inspiring. But all I heard were stories of people serving in ways I wasn’t. I wondered if I was enough. (I doubted my name ever arose on the salon’s Global Worker Highlight Reel.) 

My talks with other women would internally find me comparing everything from my kids’ behavior to my food choices for my family to who had the closest relationships with nationals. Perhaps the Christian-comparison pressure cooker has its own challenges, because of the high stakes we tether to our choices: I homeschool because it’s the best way to disciple my kids. We would stay if there was a political uprising, because we want to love like Jesus. 

Am I the only one who finds it a little too easy to pencil in some laws where God hasn’t put any? To think, Well, if she really examined her convictions and priorities, she’d come to the same place. Or insecurely, I couldn’t work in the slums all day, every day. I’m “just” taking care of my toddlers. 

Control and law have always been a lot easier to manage than grace—and the breathtaking diversity of the Body of Christ. Rather than running the race marked out for me (Hebrews 12:1), or seeking “unity of mind” (1 Peter 3:8), I’m too often comparing my lowlight reel to others’ highlight reel…or vice versa. 

Instead, God says He’s “placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Corinthians 12:18). Everyone else’s voices are only helpful as far as we encourage each other toward the unique good works God prepared in advance for us to do, no matter how heroic (or not) (Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 12:21-23).  

So the next time you’re sitting in your equivalent of the salon chair, celebrate with me the breadth of His beauty in the entire body of Christ.