Comparison: our power struggles
This weekend, at church, a truly inspiring man of God spoke.
At first, it wasn’t the words that had me riveted to the moment. Sitting in the
first row of seats and directly in front of this man speaking, I listened but
all I saw was a big man. He had arms the size of my legs; he was tall, muscular
and very commanding. If I was as big as strong and brave as him, I would be
evangelical too.
Later I realized, I was comparing the man with myself and I
missed the message. I forgot, he wasn’t perfect and the things in his physical life
were subject to failure too. I was focusing on the man and not the message.
This is a snare to a Christian.
2 Corinthians 10:12-18 we do not dare
to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they
measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they
are not wise. We, however, will not
boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of
service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. We are
not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to
you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. Neither do we go
beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your
faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so
that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to
boast about work already done in someone else’s territory, but, “Let the one
who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who
commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
The trouble with some is we compare ourselves to ourselves. We
measure our life based on what we know. We measure ourselves based on pride;
passivity; complexity; defiance; under-achievement, and perfectionism. We also
compare ourselves at work, home and church…if I could only be more like the
Pastor who taught this weekend. It may sound strange but it’s true; and as a
result, we feel empty!
Let’s face it, most people are hurting, carrying a lot of
emotional baggage, they are looking for heroes, false mentors and other people
to depend on. Who is your hero? Is it some popular athlete; maybe it’s a
teacher you knew that helped guide your life; maybe it’s some wealthy person
who started from nothing or maybe it’s some Pastor on the stage who you wished
you could be like.
Growing up, I sang in our church choir. My choirmaster was an
accomplished musician and recognized both my brother’s talent and mine. He coached
and taught us to sing better. He took us to Radio City Musical were we sang
solo’s onstage for a lot of people. I’m telling you this because I looked at
this man as a Christian mentor. If it wasn’t for this man, I would have never
realized my talent to sing. I thought he could do no wrong…but I was wrong.
He fell and he fell hard and never got back up.
In the movie, “Monsters Inc.” they powered the city by screams
they collected screams but did not intend to hurt anyone. They needed the
screams for power. Later on in the movie, they realized that laughter drew more
power than the screams. Sometimes we are just like this, we power our lives
with pain and scream because we have to work too hard or it gets difficult. Or
we try to power our lives using others as the ignition and fuel for our power. Failure wreaks havoc on this type of power. Later
we realize there is another way to do things that’s easier and more powerful.
What were we thinking?
Comparing our lives to others is painful and can result in a lot
of screaming. Why? Because the things we compare our lives to be not perfect, our
heroes make mistakes…they are only human and are capable of falling.
Jesus is perfect.
Truth be told, Jesus Christ should be your mentor, power supply
and hero…it is him you should be more like!
