Remedy | Comparison

A 17 year old Olympic snowboarder just won the US their first gold medal of the games, despite losing his coat and waking up late.

I, a 21 year old, sit on my couch watching him win. Meanwhile, proud of myself for eating a salad for dinner.

Of course, this is an extreme example and I hope that people do not actually watch the Olympics and question their worth. Regardless, comparison sucks and it is something that everyone will deal with to some capacity in their life.

Someone once told me that there is no love in comparison. If you are comparing yourself to others in a way to boost yourself up, then you are not showing love to that person. On the other hand, if you are comparing yourself to others in a way that is pulling yourself down, there is no love for yourself in that.

As I see it there are two solutions to comparison: become the best at absolutely everything OR understand the worth that you have in the Lord. As daunting of a task it sounds to grasp your worth, it is definitely the easier of the two options. There is always going to be someone who is better, faster, stronger, smarter, etc. than you. The key is learning that despite this, you are still valuable and important to the kingdom of God.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks to the church of Corinth about the importance of each person in the body. We find at the beginning of chapter 12 that the reason for this is comparison. People had been having issues because of what spiritual gifts each person had been given and this was causing disunity among the church.

Paul goes on to describe to them that every single one of them has an important role to play in the body of Christ no matter what gift they have and without this diversity, the body would not be able to function.

Out of this entire passage I think that my favorite verse would have to be 12:18 which says: "But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be."

We all have growing to do and hopefully we all will spend the rest of our lives moving towards being more like Christ, but God created you just as he wanted. Grasping this is not something you can do overnight. It is something that takes time, lots of prayer, and a constant effort to shut lies down when they try to tell you that you don't have as much worth because that person has more friends or success than you.

Imagine a world where you genuinely celebrate others for their accomplishments, and you don't measure yourself up to others every time you accomplish something. It may be hard to get there, but it is possible, and it is worth it.
 
Author | Madeline Current