Tag: comparison

Categories
Christian Living

My Un-Righteous Life

I wish I could say I that I was a good person. But unfortunately this is not true. Now it is true that if I decide to compare myself to others, I find that if I choose the right people to compare myself to, I can make myself feel pretty good. I just have to make sure to pick comparison people who don’t make me feel bad.

But in reality, it doesn’t matter who I compare myself to… Because the only real standard is Jesus. And when I compare myself to Him, I always come up un-righteous.

But fortunately I don’t have to stay there.
God has made a change in me through Jesus, and He has brought me into His family. Now I’m one of the “called out ones.”

“The called out ones.” The word is plural. Believers, therefore, are placed in community with others for one reason: because God has called them out of their former ways of life. Everyone in the community is deeply sinful. Everyone is called by the same God. And everyone has been mercifully placed in community together. So why pretend we’re more than we are if everything is built on Jesus’ righteousness and not our own? Why the need to be fake? The gospel frees us to be authentic, to admit that our struggles and strengths have not been fully sanctified, and to allow others to apply the grace of God to areas of our lives that desperately need it. When community is honest and authentic, people begin to experience freedom from wearing a mask, because Jesus sets people free from the need to be hypocrites.
        We all possess the same amount of righteousness — none.
The only righteousness any of us have is the righteousness God freely gives to us in Christ.

And it is because of that righteousness that I get to be a part of His family. The community we find in His family is one that brings freedom. I now have freedom and liberation to be myself. I am no longer forced to find people to whom I have to compare just so I can feel good about myself. Knowing that I have a righteousness before God through Jesus brings me an amazing sense of satisfaction and joy.

You can have that same joy, liberation, and satisfaction.
Seek out His righteousness and His community.

(How has your relationship with God given you a sense of freedom?)

Categories
Relationships

The Pitfalls of Personal Marketing

“We spend money we don’t have…
      to buy things we don’t need…
            to impress people we don’t really like.”

So often we seek applause from others. But on the flip side of that coin of seeking applause FROM others is the applause we hear FOR others, and our envy of it. A friend asked “How much is enough?” And for some of us the answer is “one dollar more”… that is, unless my neighbor just received two dollars, then my answer changes to “three dollars more.” We live in a world of comparisons, and we are constantly comparing ourselves with those around us, wanting more than what they have (or at least just as much).

I have heard of people limiting their time on social media (such as facebook), because it was creating too much envy and covetousness.
social media buttons by pinkmoustache.net Society tells us to “toot your own horn,” so we use social media as our own personal marketing tool. Too often it is all a facade. And when we look at the status and pictures and info of others, we get jealous and think:

–Why are their kids so well-behaved? I can’t get mine to sit still for one photo without them tearing each others’ hair and clothes.
–Why is their marriage so easy? They seem so happy together, but all we do is argue, fuss, & fight?
–Why can’t I have a brand new house, car, boat, etc. like they do? Everything we own is either in the shop now or needs to go there tomorrow.
–Ultimately, Why does it seem that everyone has a perfect life but me?

The truth is that we all have struggles, but when we look at snapshots of the lives of others, we get rattled by our comparing. Facebook and other social media can upset our own self-confidence, and even tempt us to do a little boasting of our own – praising our own situations and successes so that we keep our applause up and keep their applause down. It makes us feel better about us. Until we realize that it really hasn’t made us any happier.

Paul learned that success was less important than knowing Jesus – much less important: “…whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord….” This from a man who could have really had an impressive facebook profile!

Social media is supposed to let us connect with each other, but it could damage a relationship by causing envy or greed. I want to be able to celebrate the good things in the lives of others, while also being completely satisfied with my own situation. I want to be neither envious, nor boastful – just satisfied in Jesus.

William Wilberforce said, “I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours.”

When I keep late hours and live too publicly (Social Media being one way to do so), I find that my devotional time with God gets shortchanged. Then I am in much more danger of envy and of feeling the need to boast. The solution – “God, help me to secure more private devotional time with You!” Social media is a great tool, but we must not allow it to intrude upon our time with God nor with our time building relationships with people who are right in front of us – such as our family, friends, & co-workers. And we need to stop using it for comparing ourselves to others, which damages our ability to find contentment.

Why is our satisfaction with life so elusive when we are supposed to find contentment in Christ?
Why do our actions seem to show that He is not sufficient to bring us complete contentment?
Why do we engage allow superficial connecting pull us away from real relationships?

— brian rushing