The Danger of a Life of Comparison

God is abundantly generous. I think we all believe we want to celebrate God’s generosity, the reality is that we find that hard to do when we feel he has not been at least equally generous with us. He calls us to a life where we rejoice with those who rejoice, and we can – so long as they are not rejoicing over something that we believe we deserve and that they have received.

In Matthew 20 Jesus tells a parable that shines a light on the vast sea of God’s generosity, and illuminates how easily the beauty of that generosity is smashed on the rocks of comparative living. His story begins early in the morning, with a landowner who hires people to work in his fields. They agree on a fair price (a denarious) and happily begin work. At 9:00, 12:00, 3:00 and 5:00 the landowner hires more men to work in his fields.

Jesus tells the end of the story, “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’” (Matt 20:8–15)

“Or are you envious, because I am generous?” Ouch. That hits too close to home. And, I don’t think I am the only for whom that is true. Am I envious because God is generous? Yes, I have been, yes I can be. 

We live in a world and a culture that celebrates discontentment with what we have. It’s why we go out and get a new thing to replace the old thing that still works fine but is no longer the new thing. “You deserve what you neighbor has,” the add man says. “And since you deserve it, you should go get it, just charge it.” And so we get deeper in debt or we refrain from the debt and live with a sense that we are not getting what is deserved (and resenting those that have what we deserve). It is a vicious and destructive cycle that includes not only things that we can purchase, but things not so “easily fixed” as well.

The solution is simple, but not easy. The answer is to cultivate a heart of thankfulness and gratitude for the ways that God pours his generosity onto you.  This is not a one-time solution or a quick fix. It is a process, the development of a habit, but one that can begin today.

• Can you think of any way that God has blessed you? 
• Is there anything that you see as God’s goodness to you? 
• Is there anything for you to be thankful for?

Start small, spend 5 minutes, and make a list. Look at the blessings God has put in placed in your bowl. As we focus on those and not on the blessings he has put in other’s bowls, he will develop in us a heart of thankfulness that moves us toward a place of joy and to contentment in all circumstances. A heart of thankfulness moves us closer to the heart of God. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug