I recently came across an intriguing insight from The 4-Hour Work Week. In the book, author Timothy Ferriss relates a story about challenging some Princeton students to a competition: The first person to contact a seemingly impossible person to reach (Bill Clinton, Jennifer Lopez, J.D. Salinger, etc.) and ask them three questions would win a trip to anywhere in the world.Out of an entire class of students, none of them accepted his challenge. Many thought the challenge was impossible, but the most common excuse was comparison. They thought the other students would certainly get there first. They didn't think there was any point in trying.
What a great lesson on the defeating nature of comparison! How many times have we been stopped in our tracks because we thought someone else could write a better book than we can... or was more capable of providing leadership in a church... or could do a better job at whatever than we can?
"I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength." - Philippians 4:13 (New Century Version)
