The Downfall of Comparison

I believe that a very toxic trait that prowls in the church and amongst people in general, is comparison. Comparison is so toxic and I am going to attempt to pin point the enemies tactics when it comes to comparison and stop him right in his tracks. Now because I am super obsessed with Hamilton, the musical, I am going to use it as an example and then match it up with scripture. Yay! Ok. Let’s get started. If you know anything about Alexander Hamilton, it’s that he was killed Aaron Burr, who was a friend that were in close contact a lot of the time. Since they had similar occupations throughout their lives, it became evident that they were comparable to each other, however Hamilton was an immigrant, Orphan, born out of wedlock (which carried stigma at the time) and Burr came from wealth. The dual between them happened because there was a series of opposition welling up within the relationship. If you know anything about duals, it was often rare for them to get to the place of actually shooting each other. The dual happened because Burr got to his breaking point with Hamilton when Hamilton wrote an article about him that caused him to lose the presidency election to both him and Hamilton’s rival Thomas Jefferson. However, it is very clear that from the beginning Burr had some kind of envy for Hamilton because he was an upstart and had this ambition to rise to the top and as said in the musical, “he has something to prove, he has nothing to lose”. On the flip side, if you learn more about their relationship you see that Hamilton was also very envious of Burr because believed the notion that he just had everything handed to him. They both had this secret distain for each other that just grew over time, they held onto their “honor” to the point of death, if you ask me this could have blew over if they would have come to realize the main issue to their problems and that is comparison. Yes Burr, the world was wide enough for the both of them, and sadly it didn’t do him any good but paint him as the villain who killed Hamilton. The good thing is that we don’t have to worry about duals anymore, however, the spirit could end up causing someone to murder. The first account of murder in the bible with Cain and Abel happened because of the Envy that Cain had for his brother. Overcoming comparison can be very tough but pointing it out in your life can be the first step. In Galations 5:26 it says, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another” It’s crazy how the words “conceit” and “Envy” are used in the same sentence and how either can be bad because they are both considering one person as being more important than the other. One suggest you as more important and the other suggest another person as more important. Other examples of envy and murder in the bible comes from the story of David. Saul is so envious of David because the people started making this song that goes a little something like this…Ahem. “…Saul slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands (1 Samuel 18:7).” Then he made several attempts to kill David however God was with David and all attempts failed. Saul was the anointed one and then lost that to David because of his disobedience, so God was with him at some point as well. I think that the trap that we can have is to think that we need to get glory and can start thinking things like, “I can do this much better than this person” or “I want what they have because then I will be better.” The good thing is that older saints dealt with the same issue and Paul taught the church in Corinth deal with these kinds of issues. In this case it came to spiritual gifts and wanting to know whose gift was better. Paul writes all about it in 1 Corinthians 12. He says, “…we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same spirit.(1 Cor. 12:14)” He talks about the body and how the body would not function properly with all of it’s parts. If we said the eyeball was the most important and the only part that was necessary then what good would the body be if it was just one giant eyeball. There are different uniquely made people with giftings and callings that reflect that uniqueness as well. Your calling is not less important than anyone else’s or of greater importance than anyone else’s calling. Like in the story of Joseph, his brothers were envious of him because of his calling but what they didn’t know was that Joseph’s calling was to help them when the famine hit and each went on to form their own tribes and were all still called God’s Chosen. God gives you grace for your race that race only you can run because God has a plan that is uniquely appointed for each one of us and it is just a matter of being obedient and listening to what God wants to do in you and through you. The way to overcome this is to first seek God with all your heart for clarity and understanding and then loving who you are in Christ (this comes with speaking truths that God says about you in His word) and finally loving those around you. If you feel comparison welling up in your heart, immediately pray for that and pray for that person. Praying for another person in that moment will help you get the right perspective and thing as we best thing that you can do. Even if you feel like that person has that struggle with you should be praying for their heart. Envy is an ugly thing that doesn’t belong to the body of Christ and we should make a conscious effort to remove this from our hearts because as long as we focus on someone else we will neglect the calling that God has for us in our lives. Prayer

Lord I pray that you are helping me see if I harbor any type of envy in my heart. Help me be aware of myself and protect me if there is someone who has this against me. I pray that the church will help everyone see everyone's gifting's as unique and will not compare theirs to someone else's. You have designed a path for every one us, so show me my path and do not let me get distracted by someone else's. In Jesus name, Amen.