“My dad can beat up your dad.” “My dad is smarter than your dad.” “My mom is prettier than your mom.”
Remember those days? (I have a hard time because they were so long ago. 🙂 ) That game is still played by kids…and adults. The comparison game.
It never stops. Sports. Academics. Opposite sex attraction. Jobs. Friends. Physical stature (“I’m taller/stronger/faster than you are now.”) Church size (“We had x number of people this past Sunday.”) Sin.
Sin? Back the truck up!! Yes sin. When was the last time you heard someone say, “My sin is so much greater than yours so I deserve a much greater punishment”? On rare occasions…maybe…you might hear someone who is truly humble and will admit their sin. Most often it is more common to hear someone say their sin is not as bad as that person over there. “I don’t do this or that.” “I haven’t committed adultery.” “I haven’t left my spouse.” On and on the “I haven’t” goes.
Only when we see our sin in light of God’s unrelenting grace and the sinless Son of God will we see a more truthful picture of who we really are. When I think I am more righteous than I am I become a Pharisee like the one in Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and tax collector in Luke 18: 9-17.
God sees me for who I am. He is infinitely smarter than me. It would be much better for me to approach Him as a tax collector than a Pharisee. Comparisons pushed aside.
“Father, may I see myself as You see me…as I really am.”
I think all of us are guilty of this comparison game at some point or another, Bill. So hard to look honestly at ourselves and admit our sins, but we must do just that.
Blessings!
You are so right Martha and use the right word: MUST
I remember having this conversation with a friend (the friend’s whose dad was a pastor and later led me to Christ), back in my early years of college.
The conversation went something like this…
Friend: Ryan, Do you know if you are going to heaven when you die…
Me: I don’t know if we can ever be 100% certain, but I feel that I am a better person than the majority that is out there.
Friend: What do you mean?
Me: Well, I haven’t killed anyone, I don’t steal, I generally try to help people… I feel if you were to weight my good vs my bad, the scale is tipping on the side of the good…
—
The conversation continued, but my intellectual mind was convinced and I had checked out of the conversation. She tried to convince me that I needed Jesus…
It took some pretty significant upsets in my life to convince me otherwise. I had to recognize that I was in fact a sinner and I needed Christ to fill the crater size holes in my life.
I am thankful for that conversation and probably the numerous of similar conversations throughout my childhood and teenage years that helped me realize that it wasn’t my works or more efforts or my being better than the guy next to me that was going to lead me to life… but it was the recognition of my need of Christ and my inability to do it on my own.
Truly a turning point in my life.
What a great testimony Ryan of God’s work in your life and the faithfulness of someone who knew the truth. I’m glad you saw it. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Great post, Bill. Yes. Our carnal nature tends to do the sin comparison but when we are truly in The LORD’s Presence do we come face to face with our own sin. Then we can have a humble, contrite heart. Oh, how we need The LORD’s Grace.
It is good to hear from you Diane! And coming face to face with my own sin is a humbling experience. I’m thankful for the humble, contrite heart David talked about and that we all must come to.