Fred was fed up with life and he decided to end it all.
He took a rope to hang himself and walked into the forest, looking for a tree with a branch strong enough to hold his weight when he hanged himself. As he walked through the bush path in the forest, he came across another man who asked him where he was going.
“I am going to die”, Fred replied in frustration. “I want to commit suicide by hanging myself!”
The other man just nodded his head.
Fred soon found a tree with sturdy branches that was seemingly strong enough for him to hang himself on. As he climbed up the tree, he noticed the other man had followed him and was watching him without saying a word.
He put the noose around his neck and as he was about to jump to his death, the man said, “Erm… I hope you wouldn’t mind if I take off your clothes after you die? They are much better than what I’m wearing!”
Fred froze.
He got a Brain Reset in that moment.
So, this man is poorer than me, he is worse off- he wants to take my clothes because he sees them as an UPGRADE to what he’s wearing, he thought.
He changed his mind and decided not to commit suicide again: meeting someone worse off made him appreciate his lot in life.
Sometimes, we don’t value what we have until we see someone who has had it worse than we have.
We all go through that phase at some point in our lives.
In the Book of Ezra is the story of the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
It had been demolished by the Babylonians when they invaded Jerusalem 70 years earlier and carried Israel away as captives. But during the reign of King Cyrus, God moved him to call for the rebuilding of the Temple. Ezra took up the task to rebuild it. So he got workers to do the rebuilding. When they were done with the Foundation, there was a mixed reaction from the people.
The younger people shouted for JOY.
But the older people WEPT!
“…All the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD because the Foundation of the House of the LORD was laid. But many of the older Priests and Levites and Family Heads who had SEEN the Former Temple WEPT aloud when they SAW the Foundation of This Temple being laid, while many others shouted for JOY.” (Ezra 3:11-12)
Why the different reactions to the same event?
It’s because the Older people engaged in Comparative Analysis. The Older people who saw the Former Temple in its Full Glory, who experienced freedom before they were taken captive to Babylon wept because when compared to THAT one, THIS one is a DOWNGRADE.
But the Younger people who did not see the Former Temple, so they had absolutely nothing to compare the Foundation they just built with. They were born in captivity, they had lived all their lives as captives, so they were excited to be free, even if the freedom was temporary. To them, moving from captivity to freedom was an UPGRADE.
If you are in the Economy Class in an aircraft and you were asked to move to the Business Class, you will see it as an UPGRADE. But if you are moved from Business Class to Economy, you will see it as a DOWNGRADE.
Moving from a 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom apartment is considered an UPGRADE, but moving from a 5 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom apartment is considered a DOWNGRADE.
Truth be told, it’s all about COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS!
Same reason in a Football Competition, the team that wins the Bronze Medal is HAPPY, but the team that wins the Silver Medal is SAD: you WIN to get Bronze, you LOSE to get Silver.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS at work…
There was a time I was unhappy with my life.
I felt I was not where I wanted to be. I looked at some of my school mates and I felt they were doing better than me. So I complained to God: “Lord, this is NOT fair! I am a better Architect than Umar, but look at him getting all the big jobs! Sometimes he will sub-contract the job to me for half the sum, pocketing half of the money as his profit upfront for doing NOTHING! Why can’t the brilliant and competent me get the job directly?
Then the Holy Spirit said, “Your problem is you are doing unnecessary COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS between you and Umar. Do you remember the Best Student in your class, Tunde? He is twice as brilliant as you: why don’t you do your COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS with him?”
Tunde died 4 years after we graduated.
A friend once told me, “Whenever I feel downcast and ungrateful for anything in my life, I just visit the Hospital for Evangelism. There is no way you will walk through those wards and see people with sicknesses and diseases, people in wheelchairs and on life-support machines that you won’t come out a changed person. Your ingratitude will disappear and you will start praising God for your situation!”
That is COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS used in a much positive way: better to compare yourself with those who are worse off (like Fred who had Death Wish but changed his mind when he met a poorer man) than to compare yourself with those who are (seemingly) better off than you.
But the BEST WAY to live is NOT to engage in any COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS at all.
Stay in YOUR lane! Run YOUR race! Focus on YOUR path! Stop looking at others!
Stop engaging in COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS!!!
Shalom,
Haruna Daniels