Here is one of my favorite quotes from Mark Batterson’s latest book, Soulprint :

At the end of the day, God isn’t going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa?” He won’t even ask, “Why weren’t you more like David?” God is going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like you?”

This quote was refreshing to me because I have a lot of heroes.

People who I admire.
People who I am inspired by.
People who I desire to model my life after.

And though I think it is very healthy to have heroes, if I’m not careful, I know that, in an attempt to be like them, I can forget to be myself.

Mark Batterson’s quote reminded me that when all is said and done, my Creator is not going to judge my life on how closely I patterned my life after my heroes, but on how closely I got to becoming the person I was originally created to be.

What we need to remember is this: We must be ourselves.

Why?

Because I’m the only one who can be me.
And you’re the only one who can be you.

What a shame it would be if we breathed our last breath having never given the world the gift of…us.