The Thief
Earlier today, I checked my countdown to graduation and it said 78 days and I got so excited and wanted to tell the social media world. Then I was reminded of a few months ago when I had a conversation with my friend about how I felt like I didnt deserve to be excited about graduating college. She told me that she experienced those thoughts too and we continued to talk about it. Later, I told my younger sister and she completely tore down my argument. She told me that it's a huge accomplishment and I deserve to be excited because I didn't have to spend the last four years of my life doing that.
So I thought about it. During my college career I had two student jobs, was a Resident Assistant, won Homecoming Queen, became a Diamond Leader, went to LeaderShape, presented at 3 conferences, got into a fellowship program, got scholarships from organizations in my career field, had an internship, served on two executive boards, started 21 Days of Love and a few more things. God opened all of those doors for me and it was amazing: yet I struggle with feeling good enough or that it's worthy of celebration.
But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.
Galatians 6:4 AMP
In verses 1-3 Paul was telling the people of Galatia how to deal with people who are overtaken in sin and how to bear the burdens of others. He also said that if anyone believes he is too good to bear another's burdens when he is no one of status, he is deluding and cheating himself.
Although it wasn't about college graduations, I like verse 4 because it is a clear directive on not only what working in the Kingdom looks like, but what true contentment and joy look like. The reason I did not see the the importance of what I accomplished in the last 4 years is because there are so many people who did it better, or faster, or achieved something harder, and my idea of "success" is wrapped in comparison.
But we are to test our own work, and not allow our joy to be a result of comparing ourselves to our neighbors.
Someone will always outdo you in some way, and if we wait until we are the best at every single thing to feel good about ourselves, we will be feeling bad for the rest of our lives.
My action item for the next 78 days and beyond is to look at what God has done for me in these four years, and not focus on how much more someone else did.