Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to wake up, look up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch. And in today's episode, we're asking the question, why is your success so hard on me? This is prompted by an article I read in The Wall Street Journal about one particular man, Johnny Kim, an Asian American man who, get this, is a navy seal, a Harvard doctor, a NASA astronaut.

All of those things, and he's only 41 years old, which, coincidentally, is how old I am, and I am none of those things. Johnny Kim is a living legend. He's like the most impressive guy who has ever lived save maybe one. He's not Jesus, but after Jesus, he's pretty impressive. A Navy seal, a Harvard doctor, a NASA astronaut.

Oh, by the way, a father of three, and I bet he's a good one too. He's just obnoxiously good at everything. Johnny Kim is an example of human ingenuity. He's like a paragon of human success, but not everybody is celebrating his story. I should make the point too that, his story is also informed by trauma.

Johnny watched his father be gunned down by the police in his home when he was a young child. His father was gunned down, by the way, because he was he had a gun on the rest of the family. Johnny experienced trauma upon trauma and yet somehow rose above it or out of it to achieve in anything, I guess, he felt like achieving. The problem is, as I mentioned, Johnny Kim is an Asian American, and it is a stereotype in the Asian community that Asian moms can be pretty hard on their kids. And if you're wondering where that stereotype comes from, it comes from Asian culture itself.

In fact, the article I read was written by an Asian American guy who was saying, everyone I'm talking to in my in my culture and in my demographic is not very thankful for Johnny. And he made the point that I'm glad Johnny's mom doesn't know my mom because if she told him everything that her son was doing, I would never please my mom ever again. That's an interesting thing to me because what they're putting their finger on transcends ethnicity or culture. What they're putting their finger on is this, one person's success can actually feel pretty awful to everybody else in the room. After all, how am I supposed to feel good about whatever my accomplishments are when Johnny Kim is a Navy Seal and a Harvard doctor and a NASA astronaut?

I I don't measure up. And isn't it true that so often when we're in the presence of someone's success, whether that's financial or relational, whether it it's that they're good looking, we often hate them for it. And not out loud. We're much too polite for that. That.

But, like, in our hearts and in our minds, we kinda hate them because, their success, at least we think, points out our own insecurities. But it doesn't have to be that way. Listen, the Bible lays a groundwork for your value in the idea that you're made in the image of God. In Genesis one twenty six and twenty seven, when God is making people in his own image, he isn't saying, let us make man in our image, male and female, and a little extra special for Johnny Kim. He's saying everybody.

Your value isn't in what you do. It isn't in what you accomplish. It's in who you are and in whose image you are made. If anything, that should free us up to chase whatever dream we have knowing whether we make it like Johnny or not, like many of us, we still have value. The truth is the Bible tells us God custom fits our callings.

God has wired each one of us to be and do the things he wants us to be and do. God is wise and God is loving. If God had wanted me to be an astronaut, he'd have made me smarter. If he wanted me to be a seal, he'd have made me tougher. God has called me for something different.

And the value that I have in my own role is more than enough to give me a life of meaning and purpose. Time and time again, the Bible warns us against comparison because comparison kills joy. Instead, it calls us to actually cheer on other people because after all, Johnny Kim, whether he realizes it or not, his achievements are not fundamentally about him. They're about the God who made him, about the gifts that that God has given him. When I celebrate Johnny, I'm not celebrating Johnny.

I'm celebrating his creator who is also mine, his God who is also mine. The bible is calling us to the rest that comes from contentment. Contentment with who God's made me, contentment with what God has given me, and contentment with what he hasn't? What if how I feel about Johnny Kim says much more about what's going on in my own heart than what's going on in him? What if your jealousy and mine as it relates to our siblings or our coworkers or our neighbors or with who we're looking at on Facebook has more to do with the sin sickness of our own hearts than with anything that's wrong with them.

God should God should be making us into people who celebrate the success of others because, ultimately, that's about being rooted in our own value in him. Is that where you are? As you listen to this, do you realize you struggle with the success of other people? Run to God for your value. And the way you know he's giving you that, the way you know you're yielding to that, is that you're actually able to honestly celebrate the Johnny Kims of the world.

Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Pastor Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!