The Burden of Better: Living a Comparison-Free LifeSample

Today I invite you to lay down the burden of “better” and try something revolutionary. I call it comparison-free living. Though I’m not a doctor, I feel confident writing this prescription: For your best chance at experiencing a life of joy, peace, and rest, you need to live comparison-free.

“Comparison-free? Is that even possible?” One friend asked me.

With Jesus’s help, I know you can live free of comparison. We miss so much of what God wants for us because we’re looking around instead of looking up.

I graduated from high school before the invention of social media, but I still spent decades battling comparison and body image issues. Comparison has been around since Bible times—just look at Cain and Abel, two dueling brothers. A few chapters later, sisters Rachel and Leah struggle in a grand contest of one-upmanship. Though the struggle of comparison is older than the pyramids, the avenues we can use to compare are now prolific thanks to technology. Within seconds, you can compare your life to just about anyone’s. Anywhere. Anytime.

But, friend, to roll over and back float in comparison’s tumultuous sea of insecurity would be a tragic mistake: tragic because God has so much planned for you, just as you are. God is not waiting for you to measure up—to get the look, lose the weight, remodel your home, get those extra degrees, earn the promotion, or even take better selfies! God is not worried about how you compare to those around you. He’s got a plan and purpose for your life that doesn’t depend on her life, or her life, or even hers. . . . God doesn’t saddle us with the burden of better. He invites us to rest in his best.