10.13.2025
Hey Calvary Fremont –
About five million tons of apples are produced and sold annually in the United States. Compare this to the approximately 40,000 tons of apricots produced and sold annually. That’s 10 billion pounds of apples and 80 million pounds of apricots. As you can see, the apricot community is running well behind the apple community. At the annual Apricot Convention this year, the Head Apricot discussed the overwhelming popularity of the apple compared to the relative obscurity of the apricot. “How can we get the American people to like us more, to pay more attention to us?” Some stated the obvious, “Well, we can’t enhance our flavor. We are as apricotty as we’ll ever be.” Others suggested the heretical, “The only way to become as popular as the apple is to be an apple. Let’s give up our apricotty flavor and mimic the flavor and feel of an apple.”
This recommendation caused great consternation among the representatives at the Apricot Convention. A great debate ensued. “Do we give up our God-given peculiarity to become more popular with the people, or do we remain as we are and settle for the attention that we get?”
We have all struggled with this same problem. At the root isn’t how popular we are with people, but how content we are with how God made us. Do I achieve contentment by how many people pay attention to me and value me or do I achieve contentment by being valued by God?
Jimmy Carter was the 39th President. His father was asked, “I bet you’re real proud of your son.” He replied, “Which one?” Billy Carter had a colorful and varied professional life: farmer, gas station owner, beer promoter, and liquor spokesperson. Jimmy and Billy Carter’s dad was proud of both.
O how God delights in you and in the way He made you. He doesn’t wish you were Charlie Kirk or Chris Tomlin or John McArthur. God the Father doesn’t turn to God the Son and say, “O why can’t Tim be more like Chuck Smith?” Even as He made an apricot to be an apricot and not an apple, He made you to be you and no one else. Our problem is that we are not content with who we are and strive to be someone else – someone we think people would value more. Because if more people valued me and paid attention to me, I’d be happier. We derive our contentment from people, and not from God.
Sandy Adams is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Stone Mountain in Georgia. He is going to be the speaker at our next Bay Area Men’s Retreat in 2026. He is much more popular than me and is asked to speak at more places than I am. I cry out, “O, why can’t I be like Sandy and not like Tim!” If I gave up my Timness and took on more Sandyness, I would be more popular, and more people would like me. This scenario finds me seeking my value from men, and not from God. If only I were more like an apple and less like an apricot!
If I were at the annual Apricot Convention I would cry out, “Don’t try to be an apple, I want you to remain apricots. I like apricots. If you became like apples, the world would lose a distinctive flavor.” This is God’s counsel to you: do not try to become someone you are not. God made you and values you as you are.
Ultimately, God doesn’t set other men before us as the model to imitate. I don’t need to become more like Sandy Adams, Charlie Kirk, Chuck Smith, or John McArthur –I don’t even need to become more like me. I need to become more like Jesus Christ. I must decrease and Christ must increase. This doesn’t change how much God values me, but it does increase my contentment.
Stop striving for man’s attention and applause. If people prefer apples to apricots over 100 to 1 – what is that to you? It’s not your job to become an apple, but to be the best apricot you can be. In fact, it grieves the heart of God when you find your contentment in other than Him. It’s not your job to be popular – your job is to follow Jesus wherever He takes you. May Christ shine through who you are.
Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim
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