Comparative Theology

For those whose work requires them to be a road warrior, you know it’s not as glamorous as some non-road warriors imagine it to be. A different hotel room, another rental car, yet one more flight delay. And for those warriors with families, you know, and your family knows more, the burden it can place on the domestic church. I am blessed to have a living saint for a wife and the children have pretty much adjusted to my schedule. However, there can be the rare occasion, particularly during a more intense travel period, where the challenge is vocalized. In these instances, my instinctive and unhelpful response is to remind my family of all the spouses and parents we know that travel even more than I do. “Well Mike is gone all week, every week” and “Stephanie always has to leave on Sunday” I will say. This retort is usually met with what I call the stink eye. However, very recently during one such exchange, my wife offered a very clarifying observation. “That’s great. I’m not married to Mike. I’m married to you.”

The tendency to judge ourselves by our judgments of others is a common and perilous reality, at least for me. As a leader, the people who I serve aren’t better or worse off because of what one of my CEO-peers does better or worse than I do. They are impacted by me. Moreover, the comparative standard I have established is only the narrow perspective of what I think I observe from afar. Am I the Pharisee worshipping to establish myself compared to others, or am I the poor widow putting everything I have at the foot of the Lord? Can I see myself and those I lead in the way that God sees us? He doesn’t want for us to be more than others, He wants us to be more of how He’s made us – perfectly for the purpose for which He envisioned. God’s gift to us is our potential, our gift to God is what we do with it. What’s gift will you, not Mike nor Stephanie give this week?