Hello, welcome to the Excel Stillmore podcast.

I am your host, Chris Emerson, and we are here to talk about tips and strategies that you can employ to deepen your faith, improve your relationships, and just get the most out of your life.

Thank you for joining. Let's get started.

I feel like I should begin today by saying that you and I don't always have to agree on everything.

I just ask that you give me 18 minutes to make an argument and hear me out.

I'm saying that because of our title today, let's compare ourselves. I think probably the most

obvious thing to say is let's not compare ourselves. I think generally speaking, we would say that looking to someone else to gauge

where you are is not a great idea. We would easily argue that what we need to be doing is comparing

ourselves to the Word of God, comparing ourselves now to who we used to be, or who we want to be in the

future, or something like that. The business of measuring you against someone next to you is a

fool's game, or is it? That's what we want to explore today, and I'll admit that the way this all

came together for me started with a very standard approach,

which is comparing yourselves as a bad thing.

In fact, biblically speaking, the examples you see in that ilk are generally negative,

and I think we should learn not to do what you see.

For instance, last week, a group of guys and I were studying at the

end of the Gospel of John, where Peter and Jesus are having a conversation before Jesus ascends to

heaven, and Peter was in a good place with the Lord, and he knew what his mission was, but he just

couldn't quite get John off his mind. So right in the middle of all of that, he points over to John

and basically asks Jesus, what about this guy? You know, John had a special relationship with Jesus,

the one whom Jesus loved, is the term that John uses in his letter. And the apostles had such a

bad habit of wondering who was the best or who was the greatest.

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