Who Measures Up?

I stood against the measuring stick as tall as I could and was disappointed to find that I was still too short. I came to this amusement park every year only to find that I was still too short to ride what I looked to be the best ride in the park, a roller coaster called the Wild Mouse. It was fast with sharp curves and dips and it slammed you around the whole ride. Does this sound like fun? Well it did when I was six. However, once again, I didn’t measure up to the requirements. The only requirement – “You must be this tall to ride.” Well I was not “this tall,” in fact, I came up quite short. And the “shortness factor” would get me a lot in life. I’m not just talking about height either. Back to the park, my older brother got to ride the Wild Mouse while I was watching. The next year, I was finally tall enough –barely that is. (I may have stood on my tippy toes just a bit.) After waiting in that line for what seemed like an eternity, I sat myself in the seat with my brother and waited with anticipation for what was to come. We started moving; up – up –up we went. The car stopped at the top for a few seconds, and I held my breath in anticipation, then all the sudden, we whipped around a tight left bend, and then another, followed by a tight right and a drop, only to go up again and twist sharply. I recall hitting my head of the side of the roller coaster car several times on those turns as I was too small to really stay in place. In spite of that fact, I loved it. I wanted to ride again. It did beat me up a little, but I finally “measured up” to the requirements.


This is how our world today is. We see others doing what we want nothing more than to do ourselves, but we come up too short. We don’t “measure up.” Society today is like that roller coaster. We want to be the ones riding it, but the bar has been raised too high for us to measure up to. We try to stand as high as we can as to look tall enough. The requirements are there because anything less cannot handle the ride. If we stand tall and just barely reach the mark to ride – we might get whipped around a bit. We may get beat up along the way. Will the ride be worth it? Are we riding because it’s where we are meant to be, or because we finally fit the requirement? Is finally making it what keeps us holding on for our dear lives?


“You must be this tall to ride” – These days to measure up, you have to be the best of the best. You have to have a better education, a better job, and even be better looking than the next guy. Not everyone is going to “measure-up” to the world’s standards. It seems they are continually raising the bar, and we just can’t seem to stand to it. We all have standards (or at least I would hope we do.) Some of us have our standards higher or lower than others. It’s the standard that defines what people expect of us. At times we can be overwhelmed by what is expected as what we have to bring is never enough to satisfy the requirement. What we have to bring is never enough for us to measure up to the expectations that are set before us. When we reach that, we just drown in a sea of what we may see as failure. We fail to reach the mark.


Since creation, we've been raising the bar, pushing to do more, to go farther, to reach higher than we ever have before. We’ve been reaching to make ourselves better, or to make a name for ourselves. In the Garden of Eden, Eve was deceived and tempted to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As Satan, in the form of a serpent told her, “…when you eat of it [the fruit of the tree] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Eve wanted to be, “like God.” “Ironically, in trying to be “like God,” humans separated themselves from God Almighty and became false gods to themselves.” (FIREBIBLE Student Edition, © 2007, p. 35)


The Tower of Babel is another example. In Genesis 11: 4 says this:
“Then they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (emphasis added)


When we try to make a name for ourselves, we push the limits, we reach as high as we can manage, and when that isn’t enough we stand on our toes hoping that we will finally reach the standard. We can only do that for so long. We’re only made so strong.I find it ironic that what seems to be labeled as the "world's standard," is higher than the standards of the world. It seems that the world expects so much, but they expect it not of themselves, but of others.


Who really measures up? For how long will we continue to raise a bar that we can't stand to ourselves? Standards are good to have - high standards, but when too much is expected - when perfection is expected, who will stand to the bar? We can try and reach for it. Is it worth getting beat up along the way? Will we survive it?


I find that the "shortness factor" can get me quite a bit. I don't always "measure up" to other people. I can't sing like many people I know, I'm not the greatest with drama, and memorization. I'm not good with people all the time. I'm not the best at anything, but I'm good at many things. However, the gifts I've been given and the skills I have acquired still leave much to be desired at times. Sometimes I feel like I have an image to hold that I CAN do the requirement. That I CAN reach the standard, but really, I'm barely making it. I'm not steady. I'm on a roller coaster ride that continually beats on me with every twist and turn. Sometimes I wonder why I put myself in those places. At times, it is to stretch and to grow, at others it is because of what is expected of me, and still others, it is just waiting to be held to the bar so that I can finally step down, be satisfied that I've reached it and go back to where I measure to. Who really measures up?


I thank God continually that He takes me as I am. He made me to be who I am. He takes everything that I have to bring - failures, short comings and all - and he makes them perfect. His power works best in my weakness. (2 Corinthians _:_) In the end, it is not about whether I measure up to the world's standards, but do I measure up to God's standard? No. No one can. None of us are perfect. But he loves us.


Thank you, Jesus for taking me as I am, and loving me for who I have become. Thank you for shining through my weakness.


~Brittany

"Its a fear that keeps me wide awake,
in the middle of the night.
When the expectations are too great,
and the bar gets raised too high.

So I do the best with what I've got,
and hope that no one knows,
that I strain to see how high I can
try to stand on these toes
until I'm measured
but you know better so...

CHORUS:
Thank you Jesus,
even when you see us just as we are
fragil and frail and so far from
who we want to be so
thank you Jesus, even when the pieces
are broken and small
dreams shatter and scatter like the wind.
Thank you even then.

So I put aside the masquerade,
and admit that I am not okay.
Which may not be the thing to say,
but I'm not ashamed to need you,
more each day so

CHORUS

We raise the standard and try to reach it,
but we'll never make it and we don't need to...
so thank you....just as we are, we are fragil
and frail and so far from, who we want to be so...

CHORUS

"Even Then" - Nichole Nordeman