When I was in high school, the most popular sports team was the Rugby first Team. It seemed that if you could be in this team you had the respect of the teachers, the students, the parents of the school and indeed the headmaster of the school.
Even though the headmaster made it clear that each and every team of sport was just as important as the other, you could tell that year after year Rugby got the most supporters, the most funding and was the most subscribed team. The school therefore had 11 senior teams, 2 that competed in the premier schools league at Metric Level. You then had at least 3 active teams in each other lower grade. You see every boy in the school wanted to be on first Team rugby squad. The other popular sports teams were soccer, basketball cricket and hockey. The school excelled in all these other sports as well but they did not receive the same level of support, interest and honour, they just did not *compare* to the the _prestigious_ sport of Rugby🏉.
I often saw kids who clearly were not rugby players force themselves to achieve accolades and team positions in rugby at the cost of what they were naturally gifted in which eventually became lost in their pursuit of a target they could never ever achieve without bringing harm and painful stress to themselves.
I have seen the same thing happen in life, Everyone flocks towards what society deems prestigious. We all want the jobs that are glamorous and seemingly provide a superb lifestyle.
We compare ourselves against the standard of what the world has said is prestigious and valuable. If we don't measure up we beat ourselves up for not being successful or not being in the right career. We even compare our experience at Church to what trends say is a great Church and often our comparisons are drawn as a measuring scale that is set by what is popular and not what is healthy.
At school you were probably compared and "judged" by what sport you played, how popular you were, how cool you were. But ask yourself the question who set the standard of the comparison you subjected yourself to?
The danger with letting yourself get sucked into the comparison by following popular culture and the pursuit of prestige is that this standard always shifts and changes according to how people feel and how general society perceives things in a fly by night fashion.
Another danger is that what has been set as the standard of popularity and prestige may not necessarily fit into who you are as a person in terms of your personality, physical build, and natural talent or spiritual gifting.
We can therefore find ourselves trying to play Rugby when we were designed to be the best chess player the world has ever seen. But just because Rugby is the popular thing you struggle and strive to fit into a mould that was never meant to fit you and end up never becoming the greatest chess player of all time simply because comparison said Rugby was better.
This causes immense pressure on our minds and in our lives. Think about trying to fit a 10foot cube into a space that has a 5 foot triangular opening! You just won't be able to fit that cube into that space because it has a bigger mould and shaped very different from the triangular space. If you persisted and tried to fit that cube you would either cause damage to the cube through exerting pressure to conform into a space that was never intended for it or you would have to remould the cube to confirm to the shape therein and thereby lose the essence of the cube and why it was a cube in the first place.
The other thing that happens is that you lose sight of what you are really good at, what God designed you to do naturally and really well. In fact as you lose appreciation of how God designed you you become more aware of your short comings because you begin to feel like you are not good at anything in Life. When in actual fact it has been your inability to be grateful for who you are and how you were designed that takes you on a wild goose chase of the other things that you are not.
Reflect:
1. What changes are you forcing yourself to conform to in light of popular opinion that you are comparing and trying to conform to?
2. Does any of the pressure and stress that you are currently experiencing stem from comparison with what the world says is success versus how God designed you to be?
3. How can you start to recognise and be grateful for what is healthy for you and not just what is popular?
Action
Growth Track helps you to discover how God shaped you and to understand that your design is linked to your purpose of why God created you. Come to the next growth Track to understand how God designed so you can stop comparison with how the world thinks you should perform. Growth Track happens every 1st Tuesday of the Month at 6:30pm at our Melkbos and Table View Locations and every 1st Sunday of the Month at our Camps Bay Location.
Sunday Summary
This Past Sunday Our Lead Pastor Andre Greeff shared some Nuggets on Comparison and Gratitude, Here are a few Points to Learn:
Entitlement is a 2000 year problem it cultivales Ungrateful Mindsets:
1. I want it all Now
Luke 15:11-12
Many of us battle with not having all that we want now
2. I Deserve more than you! #Comparison
Luke:15:29
Ecc 4:4-6
3. There's no win in comparison - Andy Stanley
4. Comparison puts the dis in contentment
5. ROT happens when we Envy (Proverbs 14:30)
Remember that God is not enthroned on the complaints of His people but on the praises of His people Psalm 22:3
Prayer:
Dear God. Thank you that I am uniquely and wonderfully made. Help me to realise that the value of my design can be lost when I forsake the posture of gratitude and choose to pursue the avenue of comparison. I pray that you would instil in my heart the habit of Praise and gratitude.
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