CAN COMPARISON BE A GOOD THING?Thoughts from my journey north

When was the last time you compared yourself and your situation to that of another?

If I am honest I am doing it often. But a few weeks ago, as I watched some women  walking home, I wondered whether comparing my situation to theirs could actually be helpful.

Not long into our long drive north I started to see them. Just dim silhouettes at first. The sun had not yet risen, there was not even colour in the sky, just the pre-dawn fuzzy grey.

Yet I started to make out groups of women walking. Life possessions on their head. Babies on their side. Flimsy sandals on their feet. It seemed they had set out before dawn for the long walk home from the refugee camp.

Many questions ran through my mind as we drove past them in the Landcruiser.

How far are you planning to walk today?
What are you returning to – a home ready for you to move in?
Or ruins of a home that was destroyed during the bombing?
Is there family waiting for you?
Do you have enough water for your journey?
Is there the right amount of conveniently placed bore holes along the way to provide you and your children with safe drinking water?

And…What if this was me?

You see, we were on the same road as them, setting off to make home in their land. As I watched one woman carrying a baby on her side and items on her head I thought to myself, ‘…boy I can barely carry my 18-month-old daughter a few hundred metres.’

A few days earlier I had struggled to carry my overweight hand luggage and my daughter through air-conditioned airports. My husband had carried the heaviest things while we both tried to keep track of my 4 year old.

I sure wouldn’t have fared well if I was part of this walking group, carrying all I owned and children.
It was a humbling moment.

As I watched them continue on, carrying their meager possessions, every thought of what I had not managed to gather or prepare for this next season in the mountains disappeared. 

The morning light increased and we continued to pass by groups of women walking home. While I compared my situation to theirs, I concluded that if they could do this long walk home and start their life in the mountains again from nothing, then by God’s grace, I would find the strength for my hard journey of making yet another new home in a land unknown.

We often label comparison as a bad thing.

Which it can be if it brings shame or makes us lust for what others have. However, in that moment comparing my situation to theirs humbled me. It also drew out of me a strength and resolve to adjust my expectations and persevere through whatever hard things were ahead.

My conclusion that day was that comparison can be a healthy thing – if it humbles us and strengthens us to endure through hard times.

In the Bible we are often urged to compare our situation to those faithful ones who have gone before us on this faith journey. Chapter 11 in Hebrews is a great example of this. Which then leads us to the  ultimate example of our Lord Jesus in chapter 12, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross.

Comparing our daily struggles to His example of endurance is to be a constant encouragement to us all to not give up when trials come. And we have the precious promise that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.

Whatever real struggle that you are going through today, my prayer is that you can look to Jesus. And as you compare your struggles to what He suffered and to the hardships of others on this planet may you have the strength to endure likewise. 

X Hope

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