You Don’t Have to Manufacture Different

Recognizing What God Has Already Made Unique About You

By Brayla Williams Part of The Abundant Faith Team

There is a strange little pink cutout stuck to my mirror.

It’s been there for years, and to be completely honest, I’m not even sure what it’s supposed to be. Could be wings. Could be feathers. I truly have no idea. What I do know is that it symbolizes something entirely different to me than whatever its original purpose was.

I see it every morning, and every time I do, it reminds me of a lesson I don’t want to forget.

It came from a magic show.

I have a bit of an obsession with magic shows. I find stage illusions fascinating, and I actually have a magic-show bucket list for Las Vegas. One of the shows I can check off that list is Criss Angel’s. The first time I went to Vegas, I saw his show live and up close, and it was an incredible production.

But what stayed with me most wasn’t one of the illusions. It was something he shared at the end.

I remember him speaking about faith at the end of the show, and I appreciated hearing someone acknowledge it from a platform that reaches so many people.  He also shared a story about deciding he wanted to pursue magic and being challenged to consider what he was going to do differently when there were already so many other people doing it.

That concept stuck with me.

Because there are a lot of people doing what we do. There are a lot of businesses, ministries, speakers, writers, leaders, parents, friends, and people pursuing the same general things we are.

So what are you going to bring that’s different?

Something Criss Angel has expressed when talking about his career over the years is that he didn’t simply want to present magic the way he had always seen other magicians present it. He wanted to create something that reflected what he would want to experience. His influences, personality, and perspective became part of what he brought to an industry that already had plenty of magicians.

There’s a difference between trying to be different so people will notice you and allowing what is already different about you to influence what you create.

Comparison Can Make Us Forget What We Bring

As Christians, I think this takes on an even deeper meaning because God didn’t create a world full of duplicates. He created each of us with a particular combination of personality, experiences, gifts, perspective, sense of humor, strengths, weaknesses, passions, and story. Even the things we’ve walked through, including the parts of our stories we wish we could erase, can become part of how God allows us to connect with and serve someone else.

It’s easy to look at someone who is succeeding and assume the answer is to become more like them. We compare ministries, businesses, families, careers, and even faith journeys. We see what is working for someone else and start wondering whether we need to replicate it.

There is nothing wrong with learning from people who have gone before us. Wisdom is worth listening to. Experience can save us from unnecessary mistakes, and there are principles we would be foolish to ignore simply because we want to be original.

But learning from someone and becoming a copy of them are two very different things.

Someone else’s success can teach us without becoming the blueprint for who we need to be. Their strengths don’t diminish ours. Their calling doesn’t redefine ours. What God has asked someone else to bring to the world doesn’t cancel what He has placed in us.

God didn’t call you to be a carbon copy of somebody else. He gave you your own assignment.

That doesn’t require manufacturing something unusual simply for the sake of standing out. There is a difference between trying to look different and recognizing what is already different about the person God created you to be.

What Do You Bring That Is Uniquely Yours?

Businesses have a term for this: Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. Essentially, it answers the question, Why should someone choose you when they have other options?

I think there is something worth considering in that question far beyond business.

What makes people feel comfortable coming to you when they need encouragement? What makes your friends laugh in a way only you can? What perspective do you bring because of what you have lived through? What do you contribute to your family, workplace, ministry, relationships, or community simply because you are the person occupying that space?

Two people can have the same job title and bring something completely different to it. Two people can serve in the same ministry and connect with entirely different people. Two writers can address the same subject and reach different readers because their stories, voices, and perspectives are not the same.

That is not competition. It is contribution.

Your experiences have shaped what you notice. Your personality influences how you connect. Your gifts affect what comes naturally to you. Even the places where God has had to grow, heal, or redirect you can give you a sensitivity to people and situations someone else may not have.

None of that needs to be manufactured. It needs to be recognized and stewarded.

Not Everyone Will Appreciate What Makes You Different

Another part I’ve had to learn is that not everyone is going to appreciate what makes you different.

And that’s okay.

Jesus didn’t spend His life trying to make everyone comfortable with Him. He loved people, served people, spoke truth, and faithfully followed the Father’s will even when it wasn’t popular or expected.

We don’t need everyone to understand us in order to faithfully become who God is shaping us to be.

The people who connect with your approach will connect with it. The friends who appreciate your personality will value what you bring to the relationship. The people God has called you to serve can connect with parts of your story that someone else simply could not reach in the same way.

Of course, being uniquely ourselves is not an excuse to refuse correction or stop growing. There are parts of all of us that God continues to refine. Sometimes the very thing we are defending as “just who I am” is exactly what He is asking us to surrender.

But there is a difference between allowing God to shape us and allowing comparison or other people’s expectations to convince us that we need to become someone else.

You Don’t Have to Manufacture Different

There will always be people doing something similar to what I’m doing. Someone will have more experience, a bigger platform, a better strategy, stronger skills, or gifts I simply don’t have.

Their ability to bring something valuable doesn’t eliminate mine.

I don’t have to reinvent the wheel to prove I’m different. I don’t have to create an exaggerated version of myself to stand out. I don’t have to look at someone else’s life, business, ministry, relationships, or calling and figure out how to recreate what God is doing through them.

I can learn from them. I can celebrate them. I can allow their wisdom to sharpen me without allowing comparison to erase me.

The goal isn’t to prove that I’m different. It’s to faithfully use what God has already given me.

That’s what the lesson I heard at that magic show has come to mean to me. What makes you different doesn’t always have to be invented. Often, it has already been woven into your story, your gifts, your personality, your experiences, and the particular people God has equipped you to reach.

What has God uniquely equipped you to bring to where He has you right now?

There will always be plenty of people doing something similar.

But none of them can bring exactly what God entrusted to you.

Brayla Williams is a Christian writer, Personal Development Advisor, and content creator who uses her lived experience and faith to help people navigate the realities of everyday life. Her work focuses on providing grounded perspective and real-time support for life’s messy moments, helping people shift the lens through which they see their circumstances, recognize what they can change, make intentional choices, and move forward to become the best version of themselves. Through honest storytelling and practical insight, she writes about faith, personal growth, relationships, and the experiences that shape who we become. She is the founder of Breakthrough with Brayla and a member of Abundant TV’s writing team.

 

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