Breathe Your Own Oxygen

on trials, comparison, and joy

There are two realities none of us can escape.

First, living is remarkably difficult.

Trials always have a way of finding us. Things seldom go as planned. The job falls through. The kids disobey. The illness lingers.

As I wrote last time, one way or another, we all come to understand this.

Second, comparison is everywhere.

It’s hard to go a day without seeing someone who “has it better.”

The better job, the better house, the better clothes, the better car, the better attitude, the better lifestyle.

Walk out your front door and you’ll find this feeling. Hop onto Instagram and you’ll find an algorithm which seems suspiciously designed to give you this feeling.

Like difficulty, comparison is inescapable.

Therein lies the problem.

In Peter’s first epistle, the Apostle speaks of the incredible inheritance that Christians have awaiting them. One that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” He writes movingly of how glory is just on the horizon.

Then he says this,

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith…may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1: 6-7)

Trials are abundant, Peter knows this. His first readers knew this. His trials led to an upside-down crucifixion for following Christ.

But trials are doing something.

They are producing the kind of faith that will result in “praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Don’t trade your oxygen

This means that when we’re faced with trials, the last thing we should start doing is comparing ourselves to others.

Sure, it may appear that my neighbor has their life together with a nicer pair of shoes.

But what’s best for me isn’t to want their oxygen, it’s to breathe my own.