Careful of Self-Judgment

Guest Post: Alan Smith

This is a picture of my favorite student in Russia.  The man is named Ernst and he is a psychiatrist in Siberia.  His job was to treat patients in an insane asylum.  He told me that his patients were those who believed in God. In the days of Communism all believers in God were considered to be mentally ill.  He started to study the Bible.  He saw that Jesus' principles were good mental health principles.  He had studied by correspondence and then we studied intensely for a week.  He was converted to Jesus.  I went back the next year and he came to see me.  He had been writing a mental health column for the village paper because his way of teaching was the most mentally healthy teaching they had heard.  To be mentally healthy, don't compare yourself with others.

Comparing Ourselves With Others

Morris walks out into the street and manages to get a taxi just going by.
He gets into the taxi, and the cabbie says, "Perfect timing. You're just
like Dave."

"Who?"

"Dave Aronson. There's a guy who did everything right. Like my coming
along when you needed a cab. It would have happened like that
to Dave."

"There are always a few clouds over everybody," says Morris.

"Not Dave. He was a terrific athlete. He could have gone on the pro tour
in tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone
and danced like a Broadway star."

"He was something, huh?"

"He had a memory like a trap. Could remember everybody's birthday. He
knew all about wine, which fork to eat with. He could fix anything.
Not like me. I change a fuse, and I black out the whole neighborhood."

"No wonder you remember him."

"Well, I never actually met Dave."

"Then how do you know so much about him?" asks Morris.

"Because I married his widow."

Ever get the feeling that you never quite measure up to the standard that
someone else has set? It can be very frustrating. We look around and see
people who have achieved such great things in their professional lives, in
their family lives, in their spiritual lives, and we're left feeling very
inadequate. Or perhaps others make the comparison and make us feel that
way.

If you compare yourself with others, you can always find someone greater
than you are, and that can create a sense of inadequacy. Or, if you wish,
you can always find someone worse than you are, and that can create a sense
of pride. It's easy to see why Paul said what he did:

"For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who
commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and
comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." (2 Corinthians
10:12).

The only one we dare compare ourselves with is Jesus Christ, and while we
will always fall short of the standard, he reaches out to pull us where he
is. If we feel any inadequacy, he provides what we lack. If we feel any
pride, he reminds us that we have no basis for it.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith