Weathermen and Sportscasters have it easy.

A good portion of their job performance is based on prediction. Each night the weatherperson forecasts what the temperature will be. One segment later the sports anchor gives you their gameday picks.

They’re both just guessing. And most of the time they’re both wrong.

Yet there they sit night after night, week after week, offering their often incorrect predictions.

You probably saw it this week with high-stakes playoff football and wacky temperatures across the country. Even with incredible technology tracking the weather and advanced analytics watching every game, no prediction can be perfect.

Forecasters and sportscasters are given gobs of grace based on their personality rather than their prediction performance percentages.

It must be nice to have a job where you’re not really judged on your performance.

I think sometimes as Christians we become too concerned with The Measuring Stick – how we are judged by God based on our performance in this world.

Since so much of the rest of life is judged upon performance, we begin to worry if we measure up to God’s standards.

I worry about this often in my new retail job. I head to work each day to earn a paycheck, sure. But I also try to make a spiritual impact on customers and coworkers in the brief time I have with them.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t measure up. I feel like I didn’t do enough in my interactions with customers.

I got like this when I worked at a church too. When I couldn’t see tangible evidence of spiritual transformation I worried about my performance review (even though I never actually had one).

Something funny happened the other day that set me free of all this. I ran into my boss from one of my first jobs at a video store. 

We chatted for about 5 minutes catching up on each other’s lives. Turns out she had been through a number of great struggles in the 7 years since I’d seen her last.

As she was about to leave, my old boss asked me if I remembered a book I had given her for Christmas one year. I confessed I could not recall the gift.

She told me she had turned to the book I had given her for encouragement and hope in her time of need.

I had no idea. A simple kind act I had completely forgotten about made a real impact on someone. I would have never known without this chance run-in.

This tells me I’ve had it wrong lately. What this tells me is There Is No Measuring Stick.

God doesn’t always let us see where we are making an impact. We can’t measure the amount of good we are doing in the world because we aren’t always aware of it. Instead of doubting ourselves we must take the measuring sticks we use to judge our worth and break them in half.

Instead of trying to measure the impact you make on the world, why not try living with the same job security as a weatherperson or a sports anchor?

Throw out the measuring stick. Focus on following the scriptures and being the person you already are, loving people the way you do best. You never know who you will be impacting.

Be confident in God’s review of your performance. Remember the nails on the cross shattered the measuring sticks of the world.

Do you ever get worried about how God is viewing the way you live your life? Do you ever feel like you’re not doing enough as a Christian to impact the lives of others? How can you be more confident in God’s love for you and toss out The Measuring Stick?