COMPARISON IS A THIEF!
Did you know comparison is a thief? Comparison, emotionally and spiritually, steals from us. Do you know what it steals? Joy. Theodore Roosevelt said that comparison is the thief of joy. Comparison takes on an identity of its own. It breaks into our hearts and minds, and starts stealing the precious gift of joy that God freely gives to us. That is an assault. Yet, we continuously feed this thief, and welcome him into our homes. Comparison has a partner. Do you know what his name is? Jealousy. They are best friends. They are partners. You can’t have one without the other. They are a package deal. A two-for-one special. This duo is dangerous. This duo is contagious, and will literally spread like fire if you don’t contain it fast.
Unfortunately, as this world evolves it gets harder to stop these two dangerous thieves from invading our lives. We are constantly flashing through a highlight reel of everyone’s lives around us on Instagram and Facebook. There are literally flashes of images of people’s amazing and perfect lives right there at our fingertips. But with this battle comes something beautiful. Grace. God knows what we are up against. He knows the war is raging around us. And He’s completely equipped for the fight. As believers, we have an edge up on the enemy. I will keep reminding you that the battle was already won. We just need to become aware of what it is we are fighting. Because like scripture says, “the battle is not between flesh and blood, but against the powers of darkness.” What Paul is saying in Ephesians, is the fight isn’t something we can physically see with our eyes or tangibly touch with our hands. It’s passive. We can’t see it, but we can feel it. It’s real. And it’s happening around us constantly.
How It Unfolds
What happens when we stand in front of a mirror and examine ourselves? We form an opinion of what we see in our reflection. We study our pores, our weight, the backs of our legs, and our tummies. Thoughts start flashing through our minds of celebrities, reality stars, or friends we follow on Instagram. We compare ourselves to them. Here’s an example of how it unfolds.
It’s the morning, and you wake up. You feel happy, refreshed, and excited to take on the day. The first thing you do is reach for your phone. You start scrolling through your Instagram feed. You glance past an image of another person’s life for seconds, if that. Those images leave tiny little imprints in your brain. I feel like they go to a special little place. A holding zone. You don’t think about those images once you are on to the next person’s post in your feed. And again, those images get stored in this little place in your mind. You set your phone down and start thinking about your day. Maybe go to the kitchen and brew some coffee, or heat up some water for tea. Next, you will head to the bathroom. Now, mind you, those images are not even a thought at this point. They are forgotten. But, are they really forgotten? No. They are stored up in that little place in your mind. Waiting for the moment you step in front of that mirror and start to examine your reflection. All of a sudden, as you look at your skin, you think about that beautiful blogger you follow. How perfect she looks in her morning blog post sipping her coffee, with her overpriced PJ’s, perfectly polished fingernails, and flawless skin. An image you glanced at for a millisecond suddenly becomes a thorn in your vision. Comparison has crept in. That joy you felt because it was a new day full of possibilities is now gone. Like that. You haven’t even had your cup of coffee yet, and the devil already has you questioning yourself. This is a vicious cycle. We start to feel bad about ourselves, so we seek any opportunity to capture a brilliant life moment with our phones that we can post to our Instagram. We want to collect likes and comments because, for a moment, it feels good to be seen. To be liked. To be noticed. Our desperate attempt for shallow validation from people who really don’t matter become what we build our life upon. But guess what is happening? The cycle continues. No one really knows where that post was driven from, or the pain that inspired it. They just see this amazing moment in your perfect life. And somewhere, someone is scrolling through their feed examining all the lack in their lives. This is what is happening every single day, all day long, in our lives. Can it be stopped? Shoot, I don’t have the answer to that. But I think becoming aware of this cycle and checking our intentions from time to time can help.
This isn’t about Instagram or Facebook being unhealthy or bad. It’s about the lies that have led us to believe something about ourselves that isn’t true. It’s about coming to a place of peace with yourself. It’s about learning your roots, and where they come from. It’s about beginning the difficult and painful process to self-love so you can wipe away the fog in your mirror, and for the first time see the real reflection of the beautiful woman looking back at you.
xo,
KC