The Thief of Joy.

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” –Theodore Roosevelt

No disrespect to Theodore, but as I’ve been thinking about what robs my joy, comparison isn’t quite it. There’s a much bigger root to the problem than I think we tend to focus on. I believe comparison does steal our joy, but our ships are already doomed to sink far before we compare ourselves to anyone else.

When I’ve reflected on the things that make me upset, the things that I complain about, and the things that make me angry, I’ve become convinced of one thing: 99% of the time, these reactions are happening because my little throne is being shattered. My kingdom of self is not operating in the way that I planned it, and my pride is being hurt, because everything is supposed to work out for me. I believe I deserve it.

It’s so easy to say that I’ve given my life completely over to Christ and he sits on the throne of my heart, but if I take a second to step back and look at how I’m functionally living my everyday life, it’s easy to see that most of the time I only live under the illusion that I’ve given control to God. The truth is that I would rather God be my vending machine rather than my king. I desperately cling to control because if I don’t, I’m so afraid that my life won’t be fun. It won’t be entertaining. It won’t be about me anymore.

We all have the same root problem – we worship ourselves. We want to be popular. Attractive. Smart. Desirable. Wanted by others. And here’s where we discover the thief of joy – our world revolving around ourselves when it’s meant to revolve around another.

We were made to worship and love and serve someone other than ourselves. And even when we believe we’re controlling our own lives, the truth is that he’s controlling them anyway. But he actually knows what he’s doing. He knows our hearts inside out, he loves us completely, and he has a perfect plan for our lives. He has a plan that is going to result in forming us into glorious, beautiful, righteous people. And he’s going to do that not because our lives are about ourselves and he’s trying to assist in that purpose, but rather because our lives are about him and we will actually be happiest when giving him the glory.

Comparison will never have a foothold to steal our joy if we are elevating God to the highest position in our lives. Comparison is only damaging if it hurts your pride. If someone is “better” than you in a certain way, it only hurts you if you are finding identity in your success and someone is preventing you from lifting yourself high. But if we acknowledge that we are humble, needy sinners saved only by God’s grace and live for his kingdom rather than our own, than comparison can never be the thief of our joy.  

What if when things didn’t go the way we planned them, we surrendered it to God, saying, “I trust that you know what you’re doing and are working things for your glory and my good”? What if in every circumstance, even the hardest ones, we saw so much more value in knowing God that it didn’t matter if we have to sacrifice our comfort, security, or gratification? What if we actually stopped looking down at ourselves and trying to micro-manage every area of our lives, and instead looked up to our majestic God and worshiped him above all else?

I think we would finally start taking hold of the joy that God is offering us.

25 Things I'll Miss About Cornerstone.

So, in order to help combat senioritus the last month on school, I recorded 25 things I'll miss about CCA (of course some sarcastic ones are thrown in there for good measure). These are in no particular order.


1. Hearing cows moo (most of them sound as if they're dying) as you walk outside to your car.

2. Having the freedom to relocate class to outside if the weather is nice.

3. Being able to walk down the hallway and know the name of every single person you pass.

4. Spending an entire class period talking about something completely unrelated to what you're supposed to be learning. And usually the topic of conversation is your teacher's kids or food.

5. Being close friends with teachers.

6. The crazy fluctuating temperature of the building. . . it always is either hot or cold (mostly cold), but NEVER in between.

7. Being able to walk into my principal's office not because I'm in trouble but just because I feel like having a friendly conversation with her.

8. Watching God work miracles in providing finances for the school.

9. Playing Uno nearly every day in study hall.

10. Packing a lunch every morning (NOT).

11. Doing crazy exercises/illustrations (example: making a balloon sing Mary Had A Little Lamb).

12. Knowing your teachers so well that it's not disrespectful to be sarcastic and mock them.

13. Having meetings during lunch to dig into God's Word, share what he's teaching us, and pray.

14. Going into a room previously inhabited by junior highers and being hit by a wave of body heat and body odor (this might top the list of things I will NOT miss).

15. Driving through the minefield of potholes the size of Lake Michigan in the back parking lot.

16. Off-subject days in Bible class (yes, these are actually planned to be off-topic).

17. Having to walk out in the middle of cornfields for fire drills - which always happen to be on freezing cold days.

18. Being greeted by little 1st graders in the hallway on my way to class.

19. Having days when we all bring in food to class, just for the fun of it.

20. Getting together with a few people every Friday morning before school to pray.

21. The flexibility of teachers in having their classes interrupted (or entirely missed...)

22. Taking a large portion of class time just to pray.

23. Passing the horse/sheep farm every morning on my way to school. 

24. Last day of school rituals with turning in books and having our final assembly with the slideshow of the year.

25. My crazy, unique classmates who have become like a weird type of family to me.