Chapter 51 : Look Up

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. Proverbs 4:25-27

A FEW YEARS AGO I came across a fantastic blog post a fellow mom wrote on Halloween and why, as a Christ-follower, she celebrates and loves this holiday. Her ideas were clever, her writing was beautiful, and she felt oddly familiar. I knew this voice, didn’t I?

As soon as I saw her photo, my question was confirmed. She was my age, had the same amount of kids, and worked for the same international ministry with which I had worked for years. In fact, she and I had worked on the same initiative many years ago.

I gave her a thumbs-up on her blog, commented that she was a fantastic writer, and wished her good luck. She replied how she hadn’t written in several months but loves to do so. We briefly caught up in the public comments, and that was that.

Not a week later she posted again, saying “I can’t believe it! Huffington Post contacted me and picked up my blog. . . . I am a paid writer! This is amazing! I am floored!”

I read it twice, stared at the computer, and whined to no one in particular, “I want to be picked up by Huffington Post! She’s not even trying, and she’s better.”

As soon as I heard that er come out of my mouth, I knew I was digging myself a hole. The er effect, as I call it, was in full swing.

When you hear yourself saying she is better, prettier, faster, smarter, skinnier, stronger, then you are on fertile ground for a comparison trap. You are on the edge of falling in, wallowing, and making a mess of your envy. I shot off a text to a friend, hoping she would wallow with me like a pig in the mud of comparison. I had hopes that she would maybe even tear this woman down and build me up—not my finest moment.

In moments like these, we are faced with a fork in the road: We can compare, or we can celebrate. These are our options. And in this particular moment, I had chosen the dark side. I was going down the path of comparison, envy, and destruction. I steered clear of the road to celebration. And it was killing me.

We find these forks everywhere in our daily lives. Because of our own dreams, hopes, and expectations, we either see others and compare ourselves to them, or we can see God and celebrate.

Friend, comparison cannot be our compass. It steals joy, kills our soul, and rots the atmosphere around us. Constantly looking to the left and right will give us a headache. It’s dizzying and destructive. Let’s quit thinking that she has it better. Let’s replace comparison with celebration. Let’s declare a new mantra—that celebration is the fuel for joy. Let’s celebrate God, celebrate others, and celebrate the beauty around us. Grace so often looks like celebration.

Instead of looking to the sides, I’m choosing to look up. And when I do, everything changes. I see a King who came down to broken people all on the same playing field. All in need of a Savior. All succeeding and failing and getting back up again by His grace alone. Jesus is the One to fix our eyes on. His glory will pull us closer to Him and push us further from the comparison trap.

GRACE REFLECTION: To whom do you routinely compare yourself? Take that friend to the feet of Jesus, and ask Him to fix your eyes on Him, His glory, His good plan, His grace. It’s about Him, not her. Look at Him today.