4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
Galatians 6:4-5(NLT)
In our world today, social media has made it so easy to compare our lives with others. Though it may seem harmless at first, the internal impact, such as a lack of contentment or desperation to emulate every aspect of the other person’s life starts to take root. You may argue with me, that the person whose life you follow is a good Christian that loves God, so surely there can be no negatives to that right? No! You see, when you spend enough time consumed by someone else’s life (even those who are considered a positive role model), you can be in danger of losing sight of the exact purpose God has for YOU and the path that He wants YOU to take. As a result, you can spend a huge chunk of your life walking in someone else’s purpose. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with occasionally following people you admire on social media. The problem starts when you spend more time watching them live out their purpose, instead of figuring out, focusing on and walking in your purpose. The Lord warns us against comparison because it tends to distract us from our purpose and rob us from faithfully following God’s unique will for our lives. After all, we try to predict our next steps based on someone else’s life/experience. And not to mention, when has comparison ever left you feeling good? Though it is not always easy, God has given us the perfect solution to comparison: paying careful attention to YOUR work and responsibilities and making sure you are walking in the will of God and working as unto Him rather than people (read Colossians 3:23). Then, and only then will the appeal of comparison naturally fade.
