Comparing ourselves with others is never a very good idea; when you’re freefalling down the backside of your 50’s like I am, it’s downright nuts.
Talk about a quick ticket to Despair City. Thumbing through magazines and comparing those supermodel photos with the sags, wrinkles, and bulges I see in my mirror makes me want to scream, “I give up! The cellulite wins!” and dive headlong into a gallon of Moosetracks ice cream.
Knowing it’s not even biologically possible for a person my age to look like those models is small consolation in a culture an inch deep and a thousand miles wide that says EVERYBODY is supposed to look flawless.
I’m pretty sure the Apostle Paul wasn’t perusing an issue of GQ magazine when he wrote 2 Corinthians 10:12, but his godly wisdom certainly applies: “… but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.”
Comparing ourselves with others generally yields one of two fruits, and both are bad: pride or discouragement.
“Well, at least I’m better than she is.”
“I quit. No matter how hard I try, I’ll never be as good as he is.”
On either end of the spectrum, we end up in a place God never intends for us to go—consumed with ourselves and not with the God who made us and knows we’re much happier when we keep our focus on Him.
When Jesus put on a human body and walked around on earth, people were always trying to get Him to play the comparison game.
“How come your followers don’t fast like the followers of John (the Baptist)?”
“How come your disciples don’t follow all the rules the Pharisees follow?”
“How come you hang around with sinners and don’t seem as holy as a rabbi should be?”
Jesus didn’t fit in their boxes and wouldn’t play their games. He knew exactly who He was, why He was here, where He came from, and where He was going.
We can know that, too, if we set our hearts on pleasing God.
Most of us are all too familiar with the voice in our heads that so doggedly tries to convince us we’re never enough. Thin enough, rich enough, smart enough, talented enough, good enough.
I head one speaker describe that voice as being like a rooster finding an ostrich egg and rolling it back to the henhouse, saying, “Now girls, I’m not complaining, but I just want you to see what they’re doing in other places.”
Want some good news? With God, it’s not about us being “enough.” It’s about us being His.
And when we’re His, He promises to change us little by little into the image of His perfect Son, Christ. It’s not a process of imitation, but of transformation.
“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it,” we’re promised in Philippians 1:6.
And in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we read this promise: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
No comparing ourselves to supermodels, pro athletes, celebrities, or any other “standard-bearers” the world may pitch to us. No trying to stuff ourselves into anyone else’s mold. No more mustering up the oomph to try to leap over a moving bar that is always just beyond our reach.
Simply focusing on Jesus, living for Him, walking with Him, honoring Him, and ever so gradually, wondrously, peacefully, and surely, becoming more like Him.
I want off the comparison train before it takes me to Despair City. Want to hop off with me?