The road to becoming is often lonely. While others might walk with us, our calling remains ours alone. We must be our own man to become all God has for us.
Copying someone else’s work is easy.
Instead of taking the risk to put ourselves out there, we hide behind what others have done. This is more comfortable than being exposed and possibly criticized for our own efforts.
In school, a plagiarized paper fails. Is the same true in life?
Are we living the life God has called us to, or a plagiarized version of it?
We plagiarize when we merely imitate the expectations of others or lazily try to mimic their path and calling. It worked for them. Why try something else?
Certainly, we can and should learn from others.
We can freely adopt wise values and principles, and learn from mature hearts how to better navigate the world around us. Others help to expand our thinking and allow us to consider things we would not on our own.
At the same time, as a good student, we must still integrate what we have learned and make it our own.
In the end, we are to offer our unique contribution – our True Self to others.
But to be unique also means to be one of a kind.
No one else is called to make our same contribution. Others might be similar and connected, but our path is our own.
It’s tempting to believe we are somehow mistaken when no one else gets it the way we do. Everyone else can’t be wrong. And it seems safer just to copy them.
But we miss God’s best when we live as imposters in order to fit in with those around us.
Becoming all that God has for us requires us to be our own man – to stand on our own two feet and make our one of a kind contribution in the world.
Be your own man.
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