God Loves Variety

God loves variety — and one of the most important pieces of advice in recent memory is this: be gentle with ourselves and gentle with each other. We are all so different.

One woman feels change is happening too fast while another is sure it is not fast enough. One is giving her all to a cause she believes in while another is navigating her own personal wilderness. One is gathering and mobilizing while another is quietly, steadily serving. One reads, researches, and studies while another acts quickly and boldly on feeling. One changes the world on a big stage while another barely holds her own little world together.

Why God Loves Variety

There is divine reason for this. God loves variety. God needs variety. He created each one of us differently so every gap could be filled. So the hard to reach, the hard to love, and the hard to take would have someone in their corner. Someone they identify with. Someone who would fight for them. So the easy to reach, easy to love, and easy to take would have the energy to serve and help and build outside of themselves. And He created a unique purpose for everyone in between too.

You are needed. Even if you don’t fit the mold or look the part. Even if your contribution seems small or insignificant. Even if your voice is quiet or your energy is low or you are just barely getting by. He needs your cause. He needs your heart.

What God Loves Variety Means for You

Your work does not have to be big or grand. It does not have to be trendy or affect millions. Whatever good you are striving for, in whatever way is right for you and your circumstance, is worthwhile. So keep doing it. Even when no one is watching or clapping or sharing.

He will take your meager offering and use it to perform a miracle. Because that is what He does. Water into wine, fish into feasts, death into life. Today’s darkness into tomorrow’s light. He needs you. We need you. Doing what you do, in your very own way. Exactly as it was meant to be.

Be Gentle Because God Loves Variety

The next time you feel the urge to compare your contribution to someone else’s, or to dismiss someone else’s contribution because it looks different from what you would do — remember. God loves variety because variety is the only way every person gets reached, every gap gets filled, every cause gets its advocate. The one on the big stage needs the one who works quietly. The one who is barely holding on needs the one who is stable enough to notice. The one who acts boldly needs the one who researches first.

We need each other’s differences. And we need the grace to be gentle with all of them, including our own.

Helpful External Resources

Greater Good Science Center — the science of purpose and meaning

Frequently Asked Questions: God Loves Variety

Why does variety matter in what we contribute to the world?

God loves variety because every gap needs someone to fill it. The hard to reach have someone who understands them. The bold actor builds on the foundation the researcher created. The one who serves quietly sustains the community the stage-changer inspires. Variety is not incidental to how the world works — it is essential to it.

What do you do when your contribution feels small or insignificant?

God loves variety, which means your specific version of good — in whatever way is right for you and your circumstance — is worthwhile even when no one is watching. He will take your meager offering and use it to perform a miracle. Water into wine, fish into feasts. Your work does not have to be grand to be exactly what was needed.

How do you find your unique purpose?

Finding your unique purpose starts with gentleness — with yourself and with others. We are all so different: one acts quickly on feeling while another reads and researches; one barely holds her world together while another changes the world on a big stage. God loves variety — He created each of us differently so every gap could be filled. Your purpose lives at the intersection of who you naturally are and what the world around you needs.