How shalt thou bear the cross that now
So dread a weight appears?
Keep quietly to God, and think
Upon the Eternal Years.
~E.W. Faber
"I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare…If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us,… they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them." ~CS Lewis
In regards to John 21:18-22..."So I was refreshed by Jesus’ blunt word to me (and you): “What is that to you? You follow me!” Peter had just heard a very hard word. You will die—painfully. His first thought was comparison. What about John? If I have to suffer, will he have to suffer? If my ministry ends like that, will his end like that? If I don’t get to live a long life of fruitful ministry, will he get to?
That’s the way we sinners are wired. Compare. Compare. Compare. We crave to know how we stack up in comparison to others. There is some kind of high if we can just find someone less effective than we are. Ouch. To this day, I recall the little note posted by my Resident Assistant in Elliot Hall my senior year at Wheaton: “To love is to stop comparing.” What is that to you, Piper? Follow me."
~John Piper, Desiring God.org
3 comments:
Thanks for sharing these "ouches" with us. :-)
Yes, comparison comes all too quickly. And when is it ever profitable? Either we think we’re better, and thus puff up in pride. Or else worse, and drown in self-pity. “To love is to stop comparing.” That is profound.
Ouch, ouch, ouch.
That first one, in particular, gets me. I'm awfully inclined to think on the temporal and get caught up in my personal struggles rather than fixing my eyes on Christ--who is far beyond the temporal.
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