To Compare is to Despair

To Compare is to Despair

Good Morning Friends,

Over the weekend we watched some of the football playoffs and the competition to select the United States Winter Olympics athletes in the upcoming games. Something that struck me is the growing interest in personal bests, focusing the individual’s competition internally instead of a battle with the other athletes. The pair’s ice skating even posted the personal best of the team drawing greater attention to this reality of what is going on in this competition. Oh, I doubt that the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat is gone but there is at least an acknowledgement of a different reality that is more closely aligned with the race to be won that Paul writes about. Still for the church and for us as individuals in it there is something to be learned here about a reforming system even if sports competitions fall short. The reality is that comparing can be a problem but perhaps especially so when it comes to the context of the church. Comparing possessions causes envy. Comparing our problems causes self-pity and resentment. Drawing out other’s inferiority is a sin, especially so if it divides people who have yet to fully discover who they are in Christ. Friends, when it comes to the things of the World To Compare is to Despair.

Scripture: For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

2 Corinthians 10:12 (KJV)

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NRSV)

Message: Friends, be careful how you walk. In your walk do you secretly envy your peers who have more or make more money than you do?
You know that this is the wrong focus. Sure you do, but why do we persist in this? This was a problem for the Church in Corinth and it is a problem today as well. As long as we are comparing ourselves to others we will feel like we do not quite measure up. Humility is great but there is a point that it goes too far. You see most people suffer from some form of inferiority. Even the attitude of superiority is an evidence of feeling inferior deep down. Inferiority comes by comparing those things in our lives which are unchangeable to those features in other people. If we compare, we make that feature in others the standard of what is acceptable rather than Jesus Christ. Paul warned the Christians at Corinth not to compare themselves with themselves or with others. The result of comparing ourselves with others usually ends up becoming a rejection of our own self, our own God-given unchangeable features. And when we reject the design of our unchangeable features, we will have difficulty accepting our Designer as a personal God and loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for us. That is not good for the church or families or communities. Maybe we have a lesson to learn from sports as God works to reform it too.

Pray we stop comparing ourselves to each other in unhealthy ways. Pray we not resist Godly change. Pray we know who we are in Jesus Christ. Pray in our competitions we win something eternal.
Pray we live for God’s approval not the World’s.

Blessings,

John Lawson