I remember one day as a kid, I’d had enough with my mediocre life. I decided I wanted to be Superman. He was everything I wanted to be. So I woke up one morning and made myself just like Superman. I put on my jeans, and then I put on my underwear. I figured that would be enough to do the trick.
As I gazed at myself in the mirror, I had a realization that this might not be the best idea. Copying Superman’s style might not be what it took to make myself as cool as him.
My story might be a bit silly, but I think that’s what happens when we look at others and try to be like them. When we try to make our outer persona like someone else. When we adopt someone else’s methodologies without knowing what went into making them who they are. It’s copying that ends up making us into a bit of a fool.
I’m becoming more convinced each day that God made us as individuals. And we should function as such. God has given us unique personalities, limitations, skills, backgrounds… They’re completely unique to us. Nobody else has our exact same DNA.
When we copy anything from someone else without filtering it through our DNA, we often become silly kids wearing their underwear outside of their jeans. We miss out on being ourselves, and we become a travesty of someone else.
There’s nothing wrong with gleaning inspiration from someone else. There’s nothing wrong with seeing something that works for someone else and learning from it. But when we copy-paste someone else’s life, we miss out on living the life God intended us to live.
There’s only one Superman. There’s also only one you. You don’t need to try to be Superman, that role’s already taken. But there’s a perfectly good role waiting for you to fill it.
