FFTF Ep 10 - When The Right Focus Fails - The Curse of Comparison
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[00:00:00] Welcome to From Failure to Fulfillment, where failure isn't the end. It's an acronym for Growth, friend, analyze, investigate, learn, understand, regroup, and Execute. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Blackwood, also known as Coach Drew, and together we'll discover how God transforms our failures into steps toward Christ-like fulfillment.
Hello, I'm Coach Drew and welcome back to From Failure to Fulfillment. As we close out this first season, I wanna talk about one of the most subtle, yet deadly curses. Humanity faces comparison. Even though we've learned that failure can be our friend, that it helps us analyze, investigate, learn, understand, regroup, and execute.
Essentially, it helps us grow. Comparison [00:01:00] can quietly undo that work. It shifts our gaze away from our own lane, the one God has called us to run towards someone else's. And when that happens, we lose focus on who we are becoming and what we are here to do. In this season of my life, I've sensed God calling me to collaborate more with others.
That's a real sign of healing, growth and maturity for me because for a long time. I struggled with disappointment and discouragement. I didn't always see the value of my own contributions to the kingdom. I looked at all the needs in the world and thought, what difference am I really making? But underneath, underneath that, with something deeper comparison.
Earlier today, I spoke with a medical doctor doing incredible work in our community. He told me about his background from [00:02:00] working with youth as a CYW and teaching in college, earning a master's in organizational psychology. He even served in the military and then he became a doctor, and on top of all of that, he's active in multiple national and international initiatives.
I'll be honest. I wasn't just impressed, I was exhausted just hearing about it. Just hearing about all he does, and I caught myself thinking, this brother must be single. There's no way he could do all of this and still have a family. Then he mentioned that he has a wife and six kids. I thought having a wife and five kids was a lot, but six years ago.
That conversation would've wrecked me. I would've smiled and nodded, but inside my thoughts would be spinning. [00:03:00] Drew, you got no excuse for feeling tired or drained. You're not doing half as much as this man and he is got more kids than you. You might remember a story I shared earlier in this series about helping my daughter learn to ride her bike.
Her mom did most of the teaching, but during one of our sessions, my daughter kept losing her balance. Her problem wasn't strength or ability, it was focus. She kept staring down at her front tire trying to keep it straight. What she didn't realize was that where her eyes were fixed, her body would follow.
When she finally lifted her head and looked in the direction she wanted to go, her balance came naturally. Comparison does the same thing to us. It pulls our gaze down away from where we're going, away from the one leading us. We lose our [00:04:00] sense of direction. We wobble in our calling and sometimes we fall trying to study ourselves by someone else's standard.
That's why Hebrews 12, verses one to two tells us to run with endurance the race set before us, before us fixing our eyes on Jesus. Comparison is dangerous because it distracts, divides and distorts. It distracts us from our mission, our personal mission, and it divides us from one another. It also distorts how we see God's grace in our lives.
Comparison can make us feel less than or better than others, which are both forms of pride. It can make us chase validation instead of obedience or resent others for being where we wish we were. But there's a story in scripture that captures this perfectly. [00:05:00] The moment Peter compared himself to John. In John chapter 21, verses 20 to 22, after Jesus restored Peter, he told him, feed my sheep.
But Peter turned, saw John and said, Lord, what about him? And Jesus replied, if I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. In other words, stay in your lane. Peter, follow me. That's the cure for comparison. Keep your eyes on Jesus, not your neighbor. As Galatians six verses four to five reminds us each one should test their own actions without comparing themselves to someone else.
For each one should carry their own load. I believe the cure for comparison is [00:06:00] twofold. Number one, genuinely celebrate others. And number two, deeply appreciate yourself. When you celebrate others, you participate in God's joy, you become a witness to his creativity in them. And when you appreciate yourself, your gifts, your quirks, and your limitations.
You honor his craftmanship in you. Psalm 1 39 verse 14 says, I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. You and I were never called to be copies of someone else. We are original works of divine art, distinct, yet being conformed to the image of Christ. Just like the body of Christ in one Corinthians 12, every part is [00:07:00] necessary, different and beautiful in its own way.
So as we close out this first season of from failure to fulfillment, I want to remind you the race you're running has your name on it. God isn't comparing your pace to anyone else's. He's measuring your faithfulness, not your productivity. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Celebrate the good you see in others, and thank him for the good he's doing in you.
Because when you stop comparing, you start becoming, and that's what fulfillment looks like. Not perfection, but alignment. Alignment with the one who called you. Thank you for spending this time with me and remember, failure is never final when God [00:08:00] is forming us. Thanks for listening to From Failure to Fulfillment.
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