When Comparison Lives In Your Pocket
Measuring your life against everyone's best day.
On envy in the age of the feed.
The big idea
You are comparing your whole life to other people's edited highlights.
What does “When Comparison Lives In Your Pocket” walk through?
Test Your Own Work
Galatians 6:4 · KJV
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
In plain English
Test your own work. Then your sense of worth will come from what you did, not from comparing yourself to someone else.
A Rigged Scale
Paul's cure is not to think less of others but to actually look at your own life. Comparison is often a way of avoiding that — it is easier to measure someone else than to examine yourself.
Made On Purpose
Psalms 139:14 · KJV
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
In plain English
I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful — I know that full well.
“Envy is wanting someone's result without their story. You have never once been offered that trade.”
Where It Ends
Proverbs 16:18 · KJV
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
In plain English
Pride comes before destruction, and arrogance before the fall.
Both Directions Hurt
Comparison does not only make you feel small. Sometimes it makes you feel superior, and that is the more dangerous outcome of the two.
Gladness That Does Not Depend
Philippians 4:4 · KJV
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
In plain English
Be glad in the Lord always. I will say it again: be glad.
Pray
Father, free me from the scoreboard. Let me be glad about my own life again. Amen.
Write it down
Whose life have you been using to measure your own?
Step off the scale
Mute one account. Notice how quiet it gets.
Which passages does this journey use?
4 passages, drawn from Galatians 6:4, Psalms 139:14, Proverbs 16:18, Philippians 4:4. Every verse appears here in the King James text with a plain-English line beside it, so you can read it without a commentary open. Allow about 7 minutes for the whole thing, or 8 short sittings.
- Galatians 6:4
- Psalms 139:14
- Proverbs 16:18
- Philippians 4:4
Read any of these in full on the complete KJV, or look the wording up independently at Blue Letter Bible.
More in Your Phone and Your Soul
All Your Phone and Your Soul →The Attention Diet
What you feed your mind becomes your life.
What Scrolling Costs You
Counting the price of an ordinary hour.
Digital Sabbath
Practising a day that does not need you.
Your Phone And Your Prayer Life
The first thing you reach for.
The First Five Minutes Awake
How a day gets its direction.
Curating What You Consume
You are allowed to close things.