Comparisons can be harmful, follow only God

There is a story about two brothers who were so mean that the entire town in which they lived feared them. People knew them as thieves and liars and murderers. One day one of the brothers died. The other brother went to the local pastor and asked a favor: "Reverend, I know you are always looking for money for your church. If you will do one thing for me, I will make a substantial contribution to your building fund. If you will just refer to my brother as a saint -- no matter how you have to do it -- I will give that money to your church."

The Pastor thought about it and agreed. At the funeral, this is what he said:

"The man in this coffin today was a reprobate. They didn't come much worse than him. He was a murderer, an adulterer, a thief ... but compared to his brother, he was a saint."

Comparisons can often get us into trouble, can't they? Yet most of us practice the behavior regularly.

When our kids were younger, Dave and I attended the same church as a godly couple and their children. I envied their spiritual walk. I wanted Dave to be the Christian man the husband was, and I'm sure Dave would have loved to be married to the gentle, quiet, submissive helpmate the wife was. I would hear that couple tell of all the spiritual applications they saw in everyday life and how they taught those lessons to their children, and I would try to do the same.

While picking weeds, they would teach their young ones about sin and how it chokes the life out of healthy souls, and the children would listen, repent, and love Jesus more because of it. The next day I would take our sons outside to pick weeds, and they would try to stuff them down each others' throats. And I would spank them and make them go inside, and that would be the end of our spiritual lesson.

But one day, as I was copying several VCR's from a master tape, an interesting thing happened. As long as I was copying from the original, the tapes were clear, but if I copied from a copy and then copied from that copy ... do you copy? -- (sorry, too tempting), each tape down the line became a little more distorted.

It was then that I realized how important it was that I not watch others and try to mimic them, but that I needed to imitate only the prefect one, the sinless one, the Master himself, Jesus. Anything other than that would be a little bit fuzzy. Too, if not careful, I might look for someone more sinful than me and get all puffed up about my own spiritual maturity.

Scripture reminds us that none of us are without sin ... not even the couple I was trying to emulate. Even they had a weed or two in their garden. Hopefully in places where my flower patch was healthy and weed-free. That would make me feel a lot better about myself.

Yes, indeedy, I'm sure glad I'm past that comparison nonsense. What a waste of time!