Ministry Comparison = A Losing Game

Last year, I sat in the audience at the Gathering and listened to Scott Harrison tell the story of charity:water.

Scott is a gifted storyteller and his charisma and talent have helped reach over 3,400,000 people globally with clean water. In the process, he has set the gold standard for nonprofit marketing and communications.

I love his work. See an example here.

Sitting there, I couldn’t help but compare.

I’m a pastor’s kid. Unlike Scott, my story is not of nightclubs, fancy drinks, and New York City. Rather, I grew up eating Jell-O molds at church potluck suppers.

And Scott is just cool – he gave his speech wearing red jeans. Looking down at my khakis, I wondered—Could I have more of an impact if I tried to be like Scott?

Later that evening during dinner, I shared with Sharna Coors my admiration with Scott, but she could tell I was comparing myself.

She simply told me, “Just be you.” She reminded me that comparison is a losing game.

That’s a hard lesson for me. From the first time that I picked up a lacrosse stick, played soccer, or watched the New England Patriots, I have always loved competition.  But I’ve started to question the impact my competitive attitude has on the way I view other organizations.

C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity writes that comparison can be a form of pride:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. . . . It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.

We are not proud because we are intelligent, beautiful, or talented. But because we are smarter, handsomer, or more talented than someone else. Conversely, we’re not insecure because of our lack of intelligence but because we don’t measure up to our neighbor.

Performance, comparison, and how others view us can control our lives and undermine our impact.

Tim Keller in The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness says there’s another way of living. We don’t need to be controlled by what others think of us—or even what we think of ourselves.

He points out what Paul says to the Corinthians, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.”

Paul recognizes that he doesn’t get his value from the Corinthians, nor does he get it from himself.

Instead, Paul essentially says, “I don’t care what you think; I don’t care what I think.”

That’s really good advice for all of us doing good. Comparison is a losing game and just imagine if our preoccupation was simply about faithfulness with whatever God has entrusted. Imagine if we were truly free to celebrate what God is doing through all sorts of organizations–and we refused to find our significance in comparison to others.

Greater impact results when we find the freedom of self-forgetfulness.