| With a few minutes left before bedtime, we take one final scroll through our Facebook feed.
We see our college roommate’s perfect-mother-daughter-Lilly-Pulitzer-matching-dresses-and-husband-son-Vineyard-Vines-family-photo-on-the-beach-during-summer-vacation-photo-shoot.
Immediately, jealousy mounts.
The pity-party begins, sunshine.
Comparison. My laundry-doin’-carpool-drivin’-paycheck-to-paycheck-livin’-life v. her she-has-a-housekeeper-and-a-nanny-and-stays-at-home-life.
Insecurity. “If only I could have a day in her life.”
Judgement. “It’s not fair.”
Steven Furtick, one of today’s most influential pastors, especially of the millennial generation, preached a earth-shaking series several years ago about anxiety.
In one of the sermons, he focused on comparison and its toxic root–insecurity.
He made this profound statement:
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we are comparing our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
Oh, how true this is, sunshine.
So often we look or hear about someone else’s life, and we see only a glimpse and assume they are livin’ la vida loca and keepin’ up with the Kardashians.
And they might be.
It’s not our place to judge.
And it’s not our place to covet.
Stop.
Breathe.
Take inventory of your own life, sunshine.
Ask yourself: what am I fixing my focus on?
It’s dangerous to believe that God’s goal for your life is only to have the newest Tesla, Louis bag, condo in Maui, or any other worldly definition of success as the world defines it.
Living a life of abundance has nothing to do with material acquisition of more. Rather it’s a life of gratitude and service–to God and to others.
So as you begin a new week, I encourage you to stop the cycle of comparison and unravel the dangerous web of insecurities, sunshine.
Fix your focus on what God has gifted you and what He is calling you to do.
There’s far more here than meets the eye.
The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.
But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
2 Corin 4:18 MSG
And if you’re not sure of your divine gifting or calling, I invite you to join me and other faith-filled-vision-seekers at our upcoming retreat, Be My Vision, this November here in Florida. Click below to learn more. |
