Latest / If Bibles Could Talk / Stop Comparing Your Journey With Someone Else : John 21

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Stop Comparing Your Journey With Someone Else : John 21 · If Bibles Could Talk

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine running a marathon, right? But you are constantly looking
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: sideways at the other lanes until you just like literally
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: trip over your own feet.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what we do practically every time we
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: open social media.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Right, exactly. Welcome to today's deep dive, by the way,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: where we are going to really unpack this whole thing. Because,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you know, you are perfectly grateful for your life until
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you see someone your age graduate or start a business
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: or travel the world.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, and suddenly their progress becomes hard evidence that you
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: are falling behind. Yes.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: But here is the crazy part. We're looking at a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: text today that proves this is, well, it's not some
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: modern internet age reflex.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: No, definitely not. I mean, people have been doing this forever.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: We're diving into the biblical account of John 21 today
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: to figure out how to basically short circuit that comparison reflex.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, so set the scene for us because Jesus has resurrected, right?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And he meets his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. Right.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And he restores Peter, who Remember had just denied knowing
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: him three times.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: And Jesus gives Peter this massive personal responsibility. He tells
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: him to care for his sheep, speaks directly about Peter's future,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: and then just simply says, follow me.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Which is, I mean, it's a huge moment.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: It is. It's this ultimate life mandate. A deeply personal
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: conversation about love and destiny. But immediately after getting this calling,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Peter turns around, spots another disciple, points at him and asks, Lord,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: what about him?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Wait, really? See, that is the part that gets me.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Why do we do this? I mean, Peter literally just
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: got his marching orders.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but his immediate instinct is to look at someone
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: else's path.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Right. So what is happening psychologically when we deflect like that?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Well, it is basically a defense mechanism. I mean, focusing
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: on someone else's timeline is often a lot easier than
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: than sitting with the weight of our own responsibilities.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. That makes a lot of sense.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But Jesus doesn't indulge it at all. His response
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: is brilliantly blunt. He says, if I want him to
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: remain alive until I return, what is that to you?
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: You must follow me. Wow.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: That is direct.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Very. He essentially tells Peter that another person's timeline is not,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: you know, a universal deadline secretly imposed on your own life.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Right. But I guess it is easy to understand Peter's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: redirection in a vacuum. Peter didn't have a social media
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: feed bombarding him with a thousand competing timelines every single day.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: That is very true.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So when you are looking at all the promotions and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the big business announcements, how do we actually override that reflex?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Because it really feels like their success is our failure.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Well, that feeling is driven by zero-sum bias. We are
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: hardwired to think that resources are finite. Like if you
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: get a piece of the pie... my piece has to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: be smaller.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But that isn't true.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: No, it isn't. The text actually points to Galatians 6.4,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: which says we should examine our own actions instead of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: measuring ourselves against someone else. It totally separates inspiration from comparison.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, but those two blur together so constantly. Like, how
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: do you separate them when a peer just got the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: exact internship that you were rejected from?
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: The difference is your internal narrative. Inspiration treats their success
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: as a data point. Like, hey, That person did something
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I can learn from. Okay.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And comparison?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Comparison treats it as a verdict. It says, you know,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: that person did something that proves I am not enough.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: But their success literally cannot erase your potential. The successful
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: student's circumstances are entirely different.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I hear you, but treating it as a data point
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: sounds great in theory. My brain does not neatly separate
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the skill from the shame when I feel inadequate. How
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: do I actually stop that visceral defensive reaction?
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You have to consciously untangle the emotion from the information. First,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you know, don't suppress the comparison.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Wait, so just admit I'm feeling jealous.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Acknowledge it. Label the sting. When you name the emotion,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you engage your prefrontal cortex, which biologically turns down the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: defensive shame response in your amygdala.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, that is fascinating. Yeah.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: So once the shame is lowered, you can actually extract
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: the lesson. Is there a skill they have that you
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: genuinely need to develop? You just take the data and
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: leave the guild.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: So you are basically turning an emotional threat into a
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: practical checklist.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Precisely. And then you immediately return your attention to your
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: own daily responsibilities. The right question is not, why am
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I not where they are?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Right. It's more like, what is my next step?
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly. What is the next faithful, responsible step available to
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: me right now? That shift in focus... lets you actually
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: celebrate someone else's progress.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Because you no longer view their milestone as a judgment
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: against you.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Right. You learn to celebrate without the shame.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: You know, this makes me think. Consider all the mental
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: energy that you are spending right now trying to decode
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: someone else's finish line.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It's exhausting. It is.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: What if that is the exact amount of energy you
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: need to take your own very first step?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: That is a great way to look at it. You
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: don't have to win a race you were never asked
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: to run. Stop asking, what about them? and answer the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: call to your own path.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Keep your eyes in your own lane so you stop
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: tripping over your own feet. Thank you for joining us
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: on this deep dive today. Now, go focus on the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: work right in front of you.