Steph Curry is one of the best basketball players in the world and his rise to the top has been well documented. He’s had an incredible story from starring at Davidson to unanimously winning the MVP award in the NBA.
His dad, Dell, had a wonderful career in the NBA and is still a broadcaster with the Hornets. Steph also has a younger brother Seth, who is now playing for the Portland Trail Blazers.
With a much different journey to the NBA, Seth has been in the shadow of both of them. He attended Liberty University before transferring to Duke and then went undrafted in the 2013 NBA draft.
Working his way up in the D-League before gaining traction with the Mavs, he unfortunately, got injured last year and missed the entire season due to a leg injury that required surgery (a metal rod implant from his knee to his ankle).
Seth is now healthy, playing for Portland, and even leading the league in 3-point shooting percentage at almost 48%. During the All-Star weekend this Saturday, he will be featured in the 3-point Contest in his hometown of Charlotte – going up against Steph!
The Athletic’s, Jason Quick, has a full piece on Curry’s journey and writes how Seth “…doesn’t want the plot to be about fighting for attention in a famous family, or about making a name for himself.”
Seth says, “I’m my own player…I’m running my own race.”
He doesn’t view himself as living in his father’s and brother’s shadows, even if we as fans are always comparing him to them.
In our own lives, it’s also hard not to make comparisons to our siblings, neighbors, friends, and co-workers. We continually wonder how we stack up and consider if our lives are better or worse than someone else’s.
But, we can learn from Seth’s admirable perspective when compaing our situations with the situations of others by remembering, “I’m my own player…I’m running my own race.”
The truth is, God has uniquely designed each of us to live our own individual stories. Our journey is going to look different than someone else’s and the sooner we embrace that, the more at peace we will be.
God is using our story for His purposes. As Proverbs 19:21 says (NLT), “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.”
When we rest in this truth and stop wishing our lives were more like someone else’s, we can live out our individual responsibility to love God and love others. We are each running our own race!
The Bible tells us in Romans 14:10-12 (ESV), “Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Today, the only shadow we should be worried about is the shadow of the cross and finding ourselves there. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can unpack that!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please help me be thankful for my own story and journey and how it led me to Jesus. I pray I would seek Your purpose for my life and not be so concerned with how it compares to anyone else. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
