You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honour. James 3:18 (MSG)
Worth Indicators – Treasures Series – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
Before we get into giving and receiving, and move further into the closing thoughts of yesterday's devotion, let's talk about comparison.
We have a tendency not just to store up our treasures, but to put them on display, parade them and use them as a kind of “worth indicator.” We compare treasures one to another and judge accordingly. The more we tangibly have, the more secure and safe we feel. The more people can “see” how “successful” we are, the more they affirm our wealth and success with their comments of admiration and likes on Facebook, the more we feel like a treasure ourselves. And the more value we place on others with similar stockpiles of success.
But is a treasure any less valuable if you can’t see it or others can’t identify it? Do we equate our consumeristic abilities with self-worth and the worth of others?
I think we do.
A small example of this is how some choose to use Instagram. It might sound silly, but over the past 6 months, I have deliberately stopped following different accounts on Instagram (personal feed) because of the way I found myself responding to them. I am convinced that there is an unhealthy aspect to Social Media, and I am choosing NOT to be a part of that side of it. If a picture takes you more than 5 minutes to set up, is it an accurate representation of your life? The exception to this is pictures used to market businesses and products, where I understand (and have done so myself) that effort and strategy goes into setting up a shot and then sharing it. But why do we feel the need to do the same with our lives? Why do we post every new purchase that we make? Why do we post so many duck faced selfies? Why do we like to put our best foot forward? AND ONLY our best foot forward. I see pictures of people's clean houses, vegetable eating children, post-baby flat bellies, expensive designer clothes purchases, hot partners, triumph after triumph after perceived triumph… and to be honest, a lot of the time it makes me feel worse about what I have, how I look and who I am. There’s a fine line between celebration and sharing AND gloating and performing. A very fine line. And I get that culturally, we’re still figuring that out. Every time I post online, I ask myself what my motivation for doing so is. Sometimes I catch myself out, and I discover that my motivation is to show everyone how awesome I am, and how awesome my things are. If it’s a display of arrogant pride, and if I can be honest with myself that that's what it is, I don’t share it. If it's for comparison sake, delete, delete, delete.
But if it's celebration, if it's sharing, if it's for solidarity, stirring up ideas, speaking truth to power, encouraging, affirming, a “me too” story about my failures and wins and everything in between, then I share away.
Comparison is consumerism's twin sibling. And it perpetuates a life in taking, getting, buying, accumulating more and more and more in the never-ending race for fulfilment and success; being better than the rest. (And the more violent and hostile and oppressive issues that are hurting our world every single day, stem from the small seed of comparison: who I am and what I have is better than you and yours.)
At the end of that kind of race, there is no prize. There is no treasure. No reward.
James wrote to his friends and said,
“Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats. Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honour.” (James 3:16-18 MSG.)
Over to you. Do you catch yourself finding yours (and others) worth and value from possessions? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.
Go to Part 5 – Rust and Moths »
[vcex_image_grid columns=”3″ pagination=”false” thumbnail_link=”custom_link” link_title_tag=”true” custom_links_target=”_blank” overlay_style=”title-category-visible” columns_gap=”5″ img_hover_style=”fade-out” image_ids=”20934,20935,20937″ custom_links=”https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1239768002?pt=118656308&ct=blog%20footer&mt=8,https://www.pktfuel.com/dailyemail,https://www.pktfuel.com/support” img_height=”350″]