Real Rachel?

I was chatting to a good friend about the things she is getting sorted out as she plans for their family holiday over Dec/Jan. They are a family with 2 teenagers and are going away on a special overseas trip for 40 days, tied in with her husband’s sabbatical. This is not their usual camping trip, and will be a wonderful experience for them. She was telling me about her plans to walk through the Bible with her family, taking it in 40 segments for each of the days of the holiday and she explained some other amazing activities she had created for them to experience, all based around their personal faith formation. I was amazed at how intentional she was about this. For most of us, just getting everyone out the door on a holiday is more than enough to plan, let alone all these other things too!

I love being inspired by my friends, but today I found myself comparing myself to her and felt a bit down.

Added to this, over the past few weeks, as I have been scrolling down my Facebook news feed, I have seen many of my friends posting about what they had been doing for a good friend of ours who is going through cancer treatment. They have been so incredible and SO creative with the ways they have been loving her! Again I found myself comparing my lack of creativity and time spent with this dear friend and the seemingly incredible efforts that others were going to for her.

Why do we do this to ourselves? I assume I am not the only one!

The internet and social media can be wonderful tools, but also VERY dangerous ones. We see a false image of reality and too much information that is distorting our view of reality. We see our “friends” posting, “here I am on holiday!” or “look where my husband took me for dinner!” We don’t usually see posts like, “here is the argument we had last night” or “ here’s me crying myself to sleep because my teenage has walked away from me” or “ I don’t know where to turn next!”

We are seeing glimpses of the life of “friends” but this is NOT the REAL thing. We may feel like we are journeying through life with them because we get updated regularly, but are we really? This is not what it means to DO LIFE TOGETHER. I wonder how many of us are feeling undue stress, anxiety and low self-esteem as we compare our lives to others forgetting that what we see is NOT the real life. It is only a glimpse at the good bits. To really know we have to journey with each other. To journey means REALLY being there. Being there when it is good AND when it’s bad. Celebrating with each other, but also crying with each other.

I wonder too what this exposure to the internet and social media is doing to our young people. And even to our children who have access to the internet and get to see so much of what is going on in the world. While I agree of course that children and young people need to have knowledge of current events, but are they exposed to too much? And is it even realistic or is it tainted with some media exaggeration? Are they carrying a burden that is not theirs to carry at such an early age? Are they comparing their life with the glimpses they see of others on a newsfeed or wall and feeling like their life is so boring and worthless?

What is real? Who is the real Rachel? This is a question I have been finding I have been asking myself a lot lately. Is what people see from the outside true to the real Rachel living on the inside? Or am I wearing a mask and living in a mascarade? Am I living the life God has planned for Rachel or one that I think people want me to live? Or have I created a life of comparison, based on my perception of the life of others?

Be who you are!

1 Samuel 16:7 “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

O God, I pray that when you look inside me, that you find a clean and pure heart. (Ps 51: 10-12) “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

We are all created differently, with a unique purpose to fulfil. It is absurd to compare ourselves with others.

(Ephesians 2:10) “ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Be who God made YOU to be! For He made you “fearfully and wonderfully!”

(Psalm 139:14)