Comparisitis

In my time with Jesus this morning, I discovered a disease from which I suffer: comparisitis. The Werriam-Mebsters definition is: "the cancerous disease that causes you to compare yourself to everyone around you". It is only fatal if you try to fight it on your own.

Sometimes I have to take a step back and say, "seriously, Luke? Even that?" Like- I might compare how much food I'm eating to the person next to me in the lunch room at work. I'm comparing how much weight I'm lifting (oftentimes significantly less) to the guy next to me (the most humbling are when the older guys are lifting the same or more than I). How creative I am. How attractive/unattractive. How successful. And the list goes on...

I'm discovering more and more that Jesus is the only cure. You can 'treat' it with things like getting angry at yourself, confessing it to friends, or ceasing to eat, lift, or share around people. But these are just temporary band-aids. They don't heal the disease.

CS Lewis says that humility is: "not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." Jesus embodied this:

Philippians 2:3-11
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better (more significant) than yourselves. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place, and gave Him the Name that is above every Name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

This is one of my favorite passages- a passage that breaks me every time I read it. If Jesus compared Himself to us and suffered from comparisitis, He would never have come to die and give us the opportunity to know the glory of the Father. He would have considered us unworthy to come even close to. But He "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing."

Gracious God... please heal me of this comparisitis. I need You to wash away my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin. Against You, You only do I sin and do what is evil in Your sight. Conform me to Your Son's image... He must increase in my life, I must decrease.

If you ever see or hear me displaying my comparisitis, please remind me that Jesus is the only answer.