I love winning. And even more than I love winning, I hate loosing. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the only one. In my opinion, the college campus has become one huge comparison game. Who had the best spring break? Who got the best score on the Stats test? Who can survive on the least amount of sleep? Who had the most exciting weekend? Best car? Best clothes? This is only the beginning of the game...
This past week I sat through a 50 minute lecture and watched a fellow classmate spend over 30 minutes testing out various filters on her latest Instagram post. Trying to look the thinnest, happiest, tannest, strongest has become such a competitive, exhausting, and ridiculous game. As the math lecture about triple integrals and spherical coordinates dragged on, I started thinking about how much the world feeds us the lie of comparison. Comparison can eat away at a person and destroy our happiness. Comparison really is the thief of joy.
This past week I sat through a 50 minute lecture and watched a fellow classmate spend over 30 minutes testing out various filters on her latest Instagram post. Trying to look the thinnest, happiest, tannest, strongest has become such a competitive, exhausting, and ridiculous game. As the math lecture about triple integrals and spherical coordinates dragged on, I started thinking about how much the world feeds us the lie of comparison. Comparison can eat away at a person and destroy our happiness. Comparison really is the thief of joy.
I think that for many of us, our lives are a series of strategic moves to look better, to do more, to be more, to get more things, to be with more people, to have the best relationship, to see more places, to be more interesting – all broadcasted live on our beloved Facebook pages, Twitter streams, Instagram walls, and Snapchat apps. It isn't just a coincidence that we tend to feel the worst when we finally tear our eyes away and close these apps. We see the filters, edits, and stories.. we don’t see the real life.
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
God gave you your personality, traits, experiences, looks, and talents, not only to get you to heaven, but because they are the best way to get others to heaven. Someone in this world needs your genuine and authentic life in order to find God and find happiness, and instead of recognizing that, we spend our days wishing we were someone else. We have no authority to decline our gifts or talents, because they are not ours. It is a important moment, but when you start to realize God’s purpose for your life isn’t just about you, then He is able to use you in a mighty way. When we stop filtering, and start embracing... life becomes a choice to refuse comparison and choose to trust in joy.
“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.” -JPII
The world constantly screams the lie that someone else’s accomplishments can somehow diminish your own. The success or life of another person cannot lower your call to greatness. Don't be the person the world tells you it needs or demands, but be the person you are called to be. Don’t be the best version of your friend, your roommate, or your sibling... be the best version of yourself.
The world has enough carbon-copies of celebrities and models. What the world needs a real, fulfilled, and authentic version of you.
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
God gave you your personality, traits, experiences, looks, and talents, not only to get you to heaven, but because they are the best way to get others to heaven. Someone in this world needs your genuine and authentic life in order to find God and find happiness, and instead of recognizing that, we spend our days wishing we were someone else. We have no authority to decline our gifts or talents, because they are not ours. It is a important moment, but when you start to realize God’s purpose for your life isn’t just about you, then He is able to use you in a mighty way. When we stop filtering, and start embracing... life becomes a choice to refuse comparison and choose to trust in joy.
“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.” -JPII
The world constantly screams the lie that someone else’s accomplishments can somehow diminish your own. The success or life of another person cannot lower your call to greatness. Don't be the person the world tells you it needs or demands, but be the person you are called to be. Don’t be the best version of your friend, your roommate, or your sibling... be the best version of yourself.
The world has enough carbon-copies of celebrities and models. What the world needs a real, fulfilled, and authentic version of you.