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I had a love-hate relationship with my first iPhone. I think it was the 4. At the time, I was using a BlackBerry and loved it — it-until I didn’t. Software issues and glitches slowly wore me down. At the encouragement of my family, I finally gave in and bought — or should I say rented — my first iPhone.

It took several months to adjust. I eventually got used to accidentally calling people or taking random pictures of the inside of my pocket. The touch screen, which I initially loathed, became second nature.

Before I could blink, everyone around me was upgrading to the 5… then the 5c… and then the 5s. But not me. I held onto my trusty 4.

Then I started noticing all these never-ending iOS updates from Apple. At first, I ignored them. I told myself, “If the phone works, I don’t need to update it.” I was wrong. The more updates I ignored, the slower my phone became. Eventually, I gave in and accepted the updates.

Fast forward a year or two, and now people were using the iPhone 7. Not me — my phone still “worked.” But it was slow, buggy, and behind. I finally upgraded. I won’t bore you with the rest of my iPhone journey, but you get the idea.

Here’s the point: we’re a lot like iPhones.

If we don’t become better versions of ourselves, we grow stagnant. Slower. Frustrated. Resistant. Just like my iPhone 4, we may technically still “work,” but we’re no longer functioning at our best. Refusing the updates or the upgrades only holds us back and keeps us from growing into the person that God designed us to be.

The iPhone still runs on the same basic concept it did when the 4 came out — but Apple never stops trying to make it better. The same is true for us. Becoming a better version of yourself doesn’t mean becoming a different person.

You are wired for greatness — but life happens. Relationships fall apart. Jobs disappear. Tragedy strikes. And in the middle of that brokenness, it’s easy to start chasing the idea of becoming someone else. “If I could just be like them… if I had that skill… that opportunity…”

But I’ve learned: I don’t need to become someone else. I just need to be willing to download the updates and be open to the upgrades.

God made you who you are on purpose. He’s not looking to erase you — He’s inviting you to grow into who you were always meant to be.