What can you do?

We are living in the midst of an epidemic, but it’s not a disease. 

I’m talking about a thought that has invaded our minds more quietly and pervasively than any virus invades a body. 

It creeps in through the tiniest of cracks in our self-image and takes a foothold without us even being aware. It’s like the bad microorganisms that get in your gut without you knowing. They quietly form colonies that build a biofilm around themselves for protection, so that even when you try to kill them, your own body’s defenses can’t find them. Your own immune system doesn’t even know they’re there. So sneaky.

In 2023 we blame social media, but the truth is this pathogenic idea was growing and mutating long before we had such intimate access to each others’ lives on the Internet. 

Comparison. We’re always comparing, aren’t we?

It started in the Garden when the serpent talked Eve into wanting more than she had. She listened to his description of this magical knowledge and suddenly her life wasn’t good enough. She wanted more than a beautiful place to live and plenty of delicious food and a handsome husband—the first of his kind—and sweet fellowship with her Creator. 

She learned about this thing she lacked and she just had to have it. She was willing for the entire human race to be banished from paradise to get it. 

It was the advent of “I’m not good enough as I am,” and that mindset is still thriving today. 

But now, in the 21st century with all our talk of self-fulfillment, our focus is not so much on our physical lack as it is on feeling inferior because of what someone else does or produces. 

She wrote a book. She raised happy, well-adjusted children. She sings well enough to be on the worship team. She’s an amazing decorator. She’s a great cook. I am none of these. I don’t measure up.

The jealousy is endless. 

I recently heard Shauna Niequist say, “With people, you can connect or you can compare, but you can’t do both.” Wouldn’t connection be so much more pleasant?

Instead, we either envy each others’ gifts or we feel sorry for someone else’s meager offering. We either want what they have or pity what they lack. Always judging. Always comparing.

“… but they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (2 Cor. 10:12)

In Mark 14 at Jesus’ last Passover on earth, a woman comes in the room and pours a box of expensive ointment on his head. Such an odd thing to do at a dinner.  

Some of the disciples were indignant, thinking it was a waste of something so precious. They would have preferred the ointment to be sold and the money given to the poor. Doesn’t that sound noble? Surely the Lord would agree with them.

But

“… the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)

Two thousand years later, we still haven’t learned that we don’t see the way God sees.

Jesus’ answer to his disciples’ concern was, “Let her alone … she hath done what she could.”

This woman honored the Lord the only way she knew how with what she had. She gave him the best she possessed. She wasn’t worried about what anyone else thought—certainly not the disciples. She didn’t feel bad about herself or less-than. She wasn’t envious of another woman’s gift. She had on holy blinders so that all she could see was Jesus.

She simply brought what she had and gave it from her heart. It was just between the Lord and her, as if no one else were in the room. She wasn’t doing it to be seen or to make a name for herself. Her gift was just for Jesus.

That is pure worship.  

What do you have you can offer Jesus? Folding laundry and wiping little runny noses? Creating a loving home? Simply talking to him while you do dishes? As long as you do it as to the Lord, he’s not comparing it to what anyone else does. You shouldn’t either. 

Remember what he said:

“She hath done what she could.”