Oh my gosh!  I can buy Instagram followers.  I guess that everything really is for sale for a price. But Instagram followers?  Yes. While I was trying to get some navigational directions on how to create a post, that ad actually popped up.  I had been told by my agent that publishers probably wouldn’t give my book their time if I did not have several thousand Instagram followers. His daughter, a writer, had over a million. Getting ten on only merit seemed to be a challenge, but for a few bucks, I could impress the people I needed to impress by purchasing their names.

Then I thought, how sad!  Even people who have nothing meaningful to share can buy bragging rights to a huge number of followers.  Which potentially could get their book published faster.  I considered it for about a one-Mississippi moment.                                                                         But even I wasn’t that desperate.  I mean, as a writer of a Christian book, it probably wouldn’t be too spiritual to cheat to impress someone, right? How could I expect God to bless my writing if I had to resort to deceiving the publishing community by pretending to have thousands of friends who delighted in my postings?

The desire to be a hot shot is a major theme in my book. For much of my life, I tried to measure up to those who were prettier, funnier, brighter, holier. I’m not alone, for as I talk to my friends, most of them (and I do mean “most”) either had tried to become what they thought made them fit in or had just accepted they didn’t measure up.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is a thief of joy.”  If we desire to honor God, we will accept that He created us the way He wanted.  Psalm 139 reminds us that He “knit us together” in our mother’s womb. He stamped a one-of-a-kind DNA marking in our cells.  David seemed to know that, for in his Psalm he continues. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Notice that David does not desire to be taller or a better warrior or a more revered king.  Instead, he writes this: Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.              

I wonder how often we, like David, thank God for how He designed us versus how many times He hears us complain about how we wish we were gifted differently.  Maybe if we had a voice like Celine Dion or a ministry like Francis Chan or a body like just about anybody else who is thinner or taller, we would be satisfied. Instead, we should credit God for creating us with (what we see as) a few imperfections, recognizing that maybe, just maybe, if we had that voice or that ministry or that body, we would become arrogant and prideful and forget about Him.

Certainly worth considering.

As of today, I have 537 Instagram followers.  Not the million I need, but better than the five I once had.  And every day, I remind myself that if I had those impressive numbers, I might think I’m pretty hot stuff.  This way, I know that I’m not.