Comparison is on the Mic

Comparison is a trap that every one of us falls into sooner or later, but it doesn’t have to be. If we can recognize the voice that is on the microphone calling us into these pitfalls, then we can learn to avoid them by following the voice of God instead. This week, Louie Giglio reminds us of some practical ways to discern who is on the mic in our minds.

There are two responses to comparison:

1. I’m not good enough
2. Watch me—I’m going to become better than everyone else

Comparison comes from a seed called sin when Adam and Eve got their eyes off of the Creator and onto things created. That’s when comparison, jealousy, and sin entered the story, and it trickled immediately into their offspring— Cain & Abel.

If comparison is on the mic:

1. It devalues your uniqueness
2. It disrupts your calling
3. It diverts your focus from your assignments from God
4. It destabilizes your sense of accomplishment

If you let comparison hog the mic, it pushes you to a breaking point and robs you of rest. Jesus is inviting us into rest (Matthew 11:28-30). There is a way to connect our lives with Jesus in such a way that we know that we have a role to play and a job to accomplish, and we can still experience contentment. We can link arms with Him, and He’ll take care of the rest.

How to get comparison off the mic— five verbs from Hebrews 12:1-3:

1. SEE — The Hebrews writer wants us to see that we are in a grand story with a massive arc and massive implications. He explains that to us with the list of faithful people in Hebrews 11, and in Hebrews 12, he tells us to see that there is a stadium of faithful saints cheering us on in our race.
2. RUN — Run the race that is marked out for you. One of the tactics of the enemy is to get us to look at the people running in the lanes next to us. Romans 12:4-8 tells us that God gave us different gifts. Comparison wants us to look at the list of gifts and ask God why he gave us certain gifts and why He gave other people other gifts. God is God, and He gave us our unique gifts for a reason. He is saying to us, “You’re the only person who can run your race and run in your lane.”
3. RID — Hebrews 12:1 says to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Examples of things to throw off are jealousy, envy, and covetousness.
4. FIX — Fix your eyes on Jesus. He said, “Follow me.” If you are going to be free of the comparison trap, you need to fix your eyes on Jesus. Compare yourself to Jesus because your Heavenly Father has said, “Your best you, is when you look most like Him.”
5. FIGHT - It isn’t going to be easy to undo something sinful in our hearts and something that we most likely have been dealing with since we were kids. It is not going to go away without a fight. Jesus fought for the outcome of joy, and He went through the cross so that we do not have to play the comparison game (Hebrews 12:2).

Only one person can say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” The more you fight for that, the less you are going to fight for what somebody else has.

Reference to The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). Comparison could have been a factor in the story. In God’s economy, he doesn’t pass equal stuff out, but He grades on the same curve of faithfulness.

Practical things to get rid of comparison and let contentment into our hearts:

1. Start with gratitude.
2. Have a plan for what God wants you to do with your life.
3. Don’t always pick the very best person in every discipline to compare yourself to
4. When you find people who inspire you, decipher what you can learn from them instead of how you can compare yourself to them.
5. Compare progress gained in your life, not just the progress that needs to be gained
6. Publicly praise the success of others, especially those that got what you wanted. And if you get public praise, credit the people you learned from.
7. Notice who might be struggling with comparison to you, and share your ideas and your struggles of how you got there.