That Comparison Game

Perhaps you’ve heard this famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt before: Comparison is the thief of joy.  I was in college the first time I heard it and it hit me square between the eyes.  Comparison has always been a struggle for me.  In school it was everything from grades, to looks, to athletic ability.  In recent years, it’s more about career, stage of life, and sadly, still looks.  As I’ve ventured more seriously into this world of writing in the past year, comparison has come in looking at my small blog, with its small (but faithful!) readership, to those of some of my favorite authors who have multiple published books or other bloggers who have been at this for a decade.  Sounds silly, right?  Author Jon Acuff says, “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”  But we all do it in our own ways.  While I might be looking at other writers I admire, you might be in the throes of toddler parenting and looking at the activities of a mom with school-aged kiddos. 

For many students, and adults too, if we’re honest, comparison keeps them from trying new things as they get older because they fear they won’t be “the best” at it right away.  I’m currently character coaching with the girls’ lacrosse team at Potomac Falls High School.  This is my second year in this role and I absolutely love hanging out at practice and going to games a few times each week.  One of the things I admire so much about this program is the way the coaches – dads of current and former players – have built it up over the years.  Before these dads stepped in several years ago, Potomac Falls didn’t even have a junior varsity team because there weren’t enough girls.  When the current coaches took on this role, I was still teaching and coaching soccer at the school on the day we did cuts (worst. day. ever.) we would encourage some of these sweet (mostly freshman) girls to go see the lacrosse coaches.  They were willing to teach the game to girls who had never picked up a lacrosse stick in an effort to discover some new talent and grow the program.  Last year, they won their second state championship in a row and while they no longer have trouble filling two full teams, they still strongly encourage girls to try out who have never played before and consistently have girls on both the varsity and junior varsity teams who are complete newbies to the game of lacrosse. 

Panthers on three!

I get stuck in unproductivity some days because I think that what I have to say isn’t original enough or it’s all already been said.  And the truth is, it has.  King Solomon even said thousands of years ago in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”  But that doesn’t change the fact that God has given me a desire to write and be an encouragement to the people around me.  My readership is sporadic at best.  I had one last summer that had over 1600 views.  Since then, my readership has gone up and down a bit but is usually in the one to two hundred range.  It’s easy to get discouraged.  Actually, it’s one of the main tactics Satan uses to knock us off our game and keep us from fulfilling the things that God has placed on our hearts.  But then I remember Paul’s words in Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  Do I believe God has called me to write?  Yes.  Do I want my writing to impact people?  Yes.  But I believe that God uses a variety of methods to test our obedience.  In this case, I believe He’s developing the fruit of faithfulness in my life.  Just as in the parable of the talents from Matthew 25:14-30.  Am I willing to be faithful with the small readership God has given me right now?  Today, the answer is yes.  And tomorrow, I trust that God will give me the grace to say yes again.