The Burden of Better: Living a Comparison-Free LifeMfano

We retell the fable, but do we recognize how the tortoise wins the race, slowly and steadily? We prefer overnight successes. Rise to the top! Stand out from the crowd! Average might as well be reclassified as “not quite a winner.”

What if we spent more time thinking about how amazing it is that we’ve received God’s unmerited favor and less time wondering if we’re winning life’s imaginary races? Could this not cure our comparison?

If my parents planned to leave me ten million dollars when they passed, I don’t think I’d stress over financial pressures now, even when money is tight. I could see a future hope for financial stability that would alleviate any current stress. Couldn’t the same principles apply to the question of our worth? Could we be comfortable in our current state of “nothingness,” knowing we’ve already inherited everything? Does how we feel now matter as much as what we’ll experience for eternity?

Saving grace offers us the gospel in its simplest form. Many of us have this head knowledge, but what would our lives look like if we could embrace this truth? If I wholeheartedly believed that God accepted me through Jesus and that Jesus loved me so much that he would die for me, why would I worry about being accepted by anyone else?

• If I truly kept a kingdom perspective—where I understood that this is just a temporary place, a temporary body, and a temporary condition—why would I fixate on the digital readout from a box on the bathroom floor or a possible dirty look from a colleague?

• If I could fully understand, grasp, and comprehend God’s love for me—would I ever have cause to feel unworthy and compare myself to others?

• If I could grasp the magnitude of God the Creator as magnificent when compared to me, the creation, I would have no reason to be afraid of what others think of my legs, lawn, or life. God loves me. Why does anyone else’s opinion matter?

If I could understand the enormous saving grace of God and believe it, all the areas comparison tries to stress me out—from swimsuit season to standardized test scores—wouldn’t matter very much. Would they? This is just one way that God's amazing grace helps cure our comparison. A deeper understanding of how this grace manifests itself in our lives can help address our comparison issues from every angle. Learn more about the different kinds of grace: saving grace, sanctifying grace, growing grace, and sustaining grace in the book, “The Burden of Better: How a Comparison-Free Life Leads to Joy, Peace, and Rest.”

Compared to Who? is a ministry to help Christians who struggle with body image issues and comparison. Learn more about the ministry of Compared to Who?, other available books and resources, and the Compared to Who? Podcast at www.comparedtowho.me.