Comparison Consolation

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.  ~Albert Einstein

When the going gets tough, the tough look around and compare themselves to others.

I think I have that right, don’t I? Isn’t that what we hear? You think you’ve got it bad…. The sentence of exhortation that precedes the comparing of your (let’s keep it in perspective here) minor difficulties, to some unspeakable woes of another. I call it comparison consolation. Look around. Someone else always has it worse than you.

I you’re sick, someone is sicker; if you’re sad, someone is sadder; if you’re poor, someone is poorer. And that’s true.

But where’s the comfort in that? Am I truly supposed to feel happier/better/more grateful at the cost of someone else suffering? It’s a such a time-worn way of minimizing another’s pain, of minimizing our own, that the dysfunction of it seems almost Godly.

When Jesus said, Come to me all you folks who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…He didn’t add the disclaimer, Unless,of course, someone is wearier or their burden is heavier. There are no caveats. He just says I know you’re weary, come and rest.