The comparing game...

I have just been on face book (A great thing to do on your day off??) and I discovered that I have 86 requests. (No reflections on the amount of friends I have had, but rather the lack of time I spend on face book!) As I was sifting through and pressing "ignore" I found an intriguing request. "Compare me", ordinarily I would have hit the ignore button except that it came from a friend of mine who I care about, so, ok...I hit the accept button. Then came the "game". Two friends were placed alongside each other and I had to chose which I thought..."Was a better friend", "was funnier", " I would rather hang out with"...you get the idea. Again and again through the questions I hit the "skip" button. How do I say to one friend I prefer another??? Again and again I thought, should I be playing this game and yet how often do we as Salvationists play the game of let's compare. Let's compare appointments, let's compare talents, let's compare looks, (Interestingly I don't often hear played the who is more prayerful game) let's compare who our friends are....let's compare!!!!! Not only does out faith and ministry become a competition but it takes our focus off following Christ. (Incidentally I think there have been times that the Salvation Army itself has played the comparing game with other churches and have forgotten our distinctive calling and ministry) Our eye's are no longer firmly fixed on Jesus, but instead of everyone else. It's no wonder that we wander off from the path of Christ...and he calls us to catch up and stop looking to the side. I have selected the "delete" on the compare game on face book, and it is my prayer that you(if anyone is reading this) will hit the delete button in their life of Comparing themselves to others...but Jesus

"Let's fix our eye's on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith!"