Pastor Andrew “Hammo” Hamilton caught up with Leah and Dan recently, to talk about how life is not always perfect and that’s okay. Read his insights below.
If I tried to show my life on Instagram, you’d probably see me with my feet up, ocean in the background, sky painted just a little more perfectly than it really is. That’s what Instagram does, it lets us present our best moments. But the truth? Life’s not always that polished.
I was reminded of this in the most unexpected way.
Back when I owned a retic business, I turned up to a client’s home, noticed their front lawn and thought, Wow, that grass looks incredible. It was so neat, so green, so perfect. I actually walked over and bent down to touch it.
That’s when I realised, it was fake.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of fake lawns. Usually, they’re too green. Fluorescent, almost. Or maybe a deep bottle green that just doesn’t look quite right. But this one was different. It had little brown flecks in it. Tiny bits that looked like dead grass. It looked like a real lawn because parts of it looked like they were dying.
And in that moment, it hit me: this was the best fake lawn I’d ever seen because it wasn’t perfect. It looked real.
It reminded me of life.
We often try to live like one of those flawless, fake-green lawns. We want to present ourselves as always thriving, always winning, always camera-ready. But real life, even at its best, has brown bits. There are moments that aren’t that shiny. Some patches feel like they’re dying a little. And that’s okay.
We chase after this picture-perfect version of life, thinking that’s what success or happiness looks like. But sometimes we forget to appreciate the messy, in-between bits, the ones that make life real.
The apostle Paul once wrote something while he was in jail. He said, “I’ve learned to be content in every circumstance.” Whether things were going great or falling apart, he found strength in Jesus and learned how to be content.
That stuck with me.
If you’re looking at your life today and thinking it doesn’t stack up to what you see online, maybe take a breath. Look again. It might not be flawless, but there’s beauty in the real.
Someone once said, “When we pursue happiness, we flee contentment.” Maybe instead of chasing happiness, we need to learn contentment. We can say, You know what? Life’s actually pretty good. There are some brown bits, but that’s just how it is.
Because yes, comparison is the thief of joy. And sometimes, it’s the fake lawn with a few brown flecks that tells the truest story.
Listen to the full message below.