“We test our lives by thine.”

“We test our lives by thine.”

Hymn: “Immortal Love, Forever Full” – John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Common Tune: SERENITY

When growing up in Pigeon Forge, there was a place at the top of the stairs leading down into our basement where my mother would occasionally stand me up against the wall, level a ruler on top of my head, and make a mark. Beside that mark, she wrote the date. I was an only child, so I don’t know why “Ronald George” was written above all these tick marks. I guess she never measured herself or daddy.

Interestingly as I recall, this was always done at my request – not on my birthday or New Year’s Day. Whenever I thought I had grown a little, I would ask to be measured.

The house is still there on Forest Avenue. I wonder if those vertical evaluations are still in that stair well?

In this six-word phrase from a poem by a great American poet icon, we remind ourselves to stop measuring ourselves against other humans and to rather use the example of the Lord and Master of us all.

Seems like every gift I have falls into some artistic category. Throughout my entire educational and professional career I caught myself saying, “I wish I could sing like him,” or “I wish I could draw as well as she does,” or “If I could act like that other guy, I would have the lead,” and so on. I never seemed to measure up. In my personal evaluations, I was a little good at doing a lot of things, but great at nothing.

The truth is that I have way too often applied the same testing process to my spiritual life, wishing I had the prayer-life of another – or the patience, the wisdom, the understanding of scripture, the moral fortitude; I even wondered why I didn’t have as much faith as my mentors – those I looked up to.

When I come across this final sentence of Whittier’s hymn-text, I want to slap myself for making such comparisons. I should be testing my own life by the benchmarks set up by the One I really look up to: my Savior Example. As with my childhood requests, perhaps I need to ask for a measurement of my spiritual growth.

Judgmental of the spiritual lives of others? Guilty. This hymnline also reminds me that I am not the judge of my fellow strugglers in the faith. I need to get my nose out of their business, stop mouthing off, and set my eyes on Christ. (That’s three facial metaphors by the way!) In all those years that Hedy measured the growth of her only son, she never asked any of my friends to come stand there and see how they measured up to my progress; she only measured me against myself.

Today, focus on how YOU measure up. Stand against the proverbial wall and let your heavenly Parent tick off your progress, regardless of how the kid down the street is progressing!