By Clare BruceMonday 8 May 2017Hope BreakfastGuests and ArtistsReading Time: 3 minutes
Listen: Lisa Bevere chats to Laura and Duncan about the comparison trap. Above: Lisa Bevere. Image source: Hillsong.
If you could go back in time and give some advice to your younger self, what would that advice be?
For Lisa Bevere, it would be this: “allow yourself to make more mistakes”.
The international author and preacher believes too many young people are missing opportunities to do great things, because they’re held back by fear of rejection. It’s the message of her new book—Without Rival, an encouragement to quit comparing ourselves to one another.
It’s a message borne partly out of her own life journey.
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“I wish I would’ve taken more risks early on,” Lisa said in a chat to Hope 103.2’s Laura and Duncan. “There were so many things I did not do because of fear of failure, fear of what other people might think of me, fear of the unknown.
“Youre never going to regret trying something, but you will look back and regret not trying it. If God drops something in your life. I would say go ahead and go for it.”
Social Media Sets a Trap of Comparison
As a world-travelling speaker, Lisa said she meets many young people, and has seen that many are trapped by a culture of comparison and competition. She believes that by treating others as rivals only creates jealousy, and debilitates us from doing what we are called to.
“I see young people who have something so significant on their life and yet in this time of confusion and comparison and competition, they have no idea how to access what God has on their life,” she said.
“The reason you don’t know what you’re called to do, is because you’re called to do something that’s never been done before. God wants to say, ‘Don’t look at what everybody else is doing. Lift your eyes and look to what I want to do in your life.’”
Lisa believes Australia’s churches have achieved great things because of the pioneer spirit in our nation, and urges young people to follow in these confident footsteps, and stop worrying about what others think of them.
“Stop investing in people who don’t want to be your friend,” she said. “Be the person that you’d want to be friends with. Stop thinking about ‘what do they think about me’. You just need to say ‘what does God think about you?’”
A Message for Women
As a frequent speaker at women’s conferences, Lisa particularly wants to impart her message to women who struggle in male-dominated environments to feel they have something to offer.
Her book counters the belief that women are unfit for ministry and leadership. It also challenges the idea gender rivalry and shows women how to work with the men in their life, as allies instead of competitors.