Lego My Ego

A couple of years ago I ran up a 228 consecutive day streak of doing push ups. My goal was 100 non-stop reps.

Before I fell off the wagon I hit 80.

Now I am doing it again. I’m on day 13 and I’m up to 65.

100 is still the goal.

I remember during the first run Sandra commenting that my push up form wasn’t right. Say what? She said that my nose wasn’t touching the ground. If my arms hadn’t been worn out, she may have gotten a spanking.

Instead I said that it didn’t matter. The form was right enough for me and that’s how I always did them. Every time. Consistently. So, 60 this week compared to 50 last week is an improvement. It’s objective.

If I was competing with someone we would need to establish a standard. Nose to the ground or an inch away, etc, but I was competing only with me. No one else. Maybe someone else can only do 30, but they are doing perfect nose to the ground, make my wife happy kind of push ups. Is my 60 better than their 30?

Who cares?

Comparing ourselves to others is a slow painful death of our souls.

Joel can build a network server with his eyes closed. I can turn my computer on. Arthur can build a house and do almost every trade in the process. I use my hammer on my pc when I can’t get it started.

But I’m pretty good at writing. Their best writing is with checks.

I’m smarter than some, less so than others. Taller than others, shorter than many. More handsome than…I digress, but I’m exactly how God made me and wanted me. He’s happy with His handiwork, so I should be, too.

It’s not what we don’t have compared to others, but it’s what He can do through us with what He’s put in us. And that is wide open.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Phillipians 4:13)

And I will get to 100 push ups…and my nose won’t touch the floor once.