I play basketball (technically), but not at the level Kobe does. I am also not Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; as a matter of fact, I have no musical talent at all. I am not even Mark Wahlberg, who has possibly the most spectacular abs in the history of mankind. Odds are that you are none of these people either, and this could be a problem (as an aside, if Kobe or Mark are reading this, please comment so I can feel amazing for a day). When I focus on who I am NOT, this prevents me from stepping into exactly who it is God has created me to be. The same is true for you.
It is far too easy to waste our time emulating someone else, but once that happens we will lose our path. A quick jaunt down to Ephesian 2:8-10 will break it down for us:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Workmanship is a wonderful word here, but it does not capture the full imagery of the promise given to us after we are saved by grace through the work of Christ upon the cross. A better word is masterpiece – we are God’s masterpiece…His Mona Lisa….His Statue of David…His Starry Night. If you are anything like me, you probably do not spend much of your life feeling like a masterpiece, just a person trying to get through life. And yet, this is the truth, we are His masterpiece. When God stands back and looks at us, He gets a glint in His eyes, a wistful smile crosses His lips, His face lights up, and He says, “Yes! Exactly as I imagined it!” But we were not made to be put in some museum, dusted once in a while, and admired from afar.
We were made for good works. This seems pretty mundane, until we take a closer look. We were made for specific good works which God prepared beforehand – that’s where it starts to get exciting. God has precise things that He has created us exactly for, and He had them exactly in mind when He created us in the first place. If we are too busy being Kobe Bryant, or Mozart, or Mark Wahlberg, then we will miss the chance to be ourselves, and we will miss the works that He created us for.