Measuring Up
Friday Highlight – Measuring Up
I did high jump in high school track, but I wasn’t very good. At each meet, the bar would start off pretty low, low enough that everyone could jump over it, but then it would rise incrementally. If you kept jumping over it, you got to keep competing. But if you didn’t make it over the bar, you were eliminated. Every time I failed to make it over the bar, I would feel pretty good about its height, at first. But as the other jumpers kept jumping and kept clearing the bar, I felt worse and worse. By the end of the meet, the height I’d reached would be many inches below those who’d made it to the podium. I didn’t measure up.
Sometimes I wonder if this is how we view God’s love. We repeatedly hear that there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s mercy, and we read passages like Ephesians 2:8-9 which says our salvation is not a result of our works, and we agree with these things, at first. But then we look around at others. We see how much better they seem to be doing. We compare ourselves with the “Super Christians” online. Or we look at the world and see how much brokenness needs to be fixed. Or we look at our neighbors and realize how much we haven’t done to build relationships with them. It’s overwhelming. We feel like God is slowly moving the bar higher and higher, and it takes so much effort to keep measuring up.
And while it’s true that there’s always more work to do for the Kingdom, and we can always grow in holiness, maturity, and relational courage, here’s the truth we see over and over in the Bible: The bar is too high for you. You can’t clear it. You never could. You will never reach a point where you feel like you’ve done enough. God demands perfection, and we failed—pretty much right out of the gate—and we keep failing every day. When it comes to our works, we’ll never measure up. Our only hope is to trust in the One who did clear the bar: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And instead of rejecting you for your shortcomings, he continually welcomes you into his loving arms. He wants you to run to him! He even compares himself to a mother hen, protecting and providing for her brood (Matthew 23:37). Instead of trying to measure up, seek to rest in the shelter of his wings. Consider praying the following verses whenever you feel like you’re not measuring up:
- Psalm 17:8 – Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings
- Psalm 36:7 – How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
- Psalm 57:1 – Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.
- Psalm 61:4 – Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
- Psalm 63:7 – for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
- Psalm 91:1–4
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
The solution to perfectionism isn’t trying harder, it’s trust. It’s rest. It’s hiding yourself in his love. God loves to protect his children. He delights in doing good to those who run to him (Jeremiah 32:41; Psalm 35:27; Romans 8:28). The best place to grow in holiness is not under the measuring stick, it’s in the shadow of his wings. We think we have to clear some imaginary bar to earn his love, but we don’t. We don’t have to convince him that we deserve his mercy. We don’t have to persuade him to protect us. We don’t have to be the perfect friend, neighbor, child, or parent. All we do is run to him and take refuge in the shelter of his wings. He will always—always—welcome you home.