Befriending Your MonstersSample

Monster #1—Comparison

Over the next few days, we will look at the lies that become the three universal monsters of comparison, more, and success. While presented uniquely in each of us, these three monsters haunt all of us. 

I’d like to keep in the background, though, the story of Jonah as it serves as an archetype for how to befriend our monsters. The four questions with which to look at these monsters are: What’s the prop? What’s the pull? What’s the point? How does the light get in?

Most of us are familiar with the four chapters that comprise the book of Jonah (if not, give it a read). The prop was the fish that swallowed Jonah. It appeared to be the centerpiece of the story, but in hindsight it was only a level-one monster that got the hero moving. The pull was Jonah’s hatred for the Ninevites that conformed him to a closed-off posture that couldn’t receive (but could run from) God’s intentions for his life. The point of the story was not the fish that swallowed Jonah but the monster of hatred that consumed Jonah’s heart—he did not want his enemies to be worthy of God’s mercy. The light could have come in by the transforming of Jonah’s hateful heart to see the value in his enemies and God’s boundless love. Sadly for Jonah, this didn’t happen.

Let’s start with the Monster of Comparison. Most of us don’t intentionally set out to compare ourselves to others. This monster says I am what others think or say about me based on how I compare to them. But despite what our eyes tell us, the people I compare myself to aren’t the point. They are just a prop, inviting me to go deeper, if I can resist its pull.

The invitation of the Monster of Comparison is for you to be aware of the emptiness of the comparison game so you will stop parroting the voices around you and be quiet long enough to hear the Voice that speaks to you: That’s my child with whom I’m well pleased.

The point of the Monster of Comparison is that we need something better, something that God has already given to us: complete acceptance because Jesus’s righteousness covers us (Romans 3:22). The invitation is to be silent and listen to what God says about us and trust that God’s words are the truest things about us.

Silence yourself before God and ask: God, how do I please You? Wait. Listen. What do you hear?