Everybody Else's Is Bigger

You have two pots on a step.

And you cannot look at them. Not properly, not for more than a second or two, because within about that long your mind has produced somebody else's.

Your brother in law's, which has raised beds. The one at the end of the road. A photograph you scrolled past on Tuesday that you did not even stop on and which has somehow stayed with you all week.

And your two pots get measured against all of it, instantly, without any decision from you, and they come out badly every time.

You are not behind anybody, and a garden has never once been a position in a field of runners.

Let me say what is actually happening in that second or two, because it is worth seeing the machinery.

You are not comparing gardens. You are comparing your garden against a composite that does not exist.

Because the raised beds come from your brother in law, and the fruit trees come from the end of the road, and the thing you scrolled past on Tuesday belongs to somebody with a different climate and probably a professional photographer. And your mind has assembled all of that into a single standard, and that standard is not a garden anybody has, and you are losing to it daily.

Nobody could beat it. It is made of everybody's best bits.

Comparing themselves among themselves

There is a line in 2 Corinthians where Paul makes a judgment about a whole practice, and he does it very briefly.

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12, King James Version)

Are not wise.

Now, notice that he does not say it is sinful. He does not thunder about it. He says it is not wise, which is a judgment about whether a thing works rather than about whether it is permitted.

That is a more useful verdict than a moral one, because you already suspect it is not good for you, and being told it is wicked would just add a layer.

You are being told that a practice does not work rather than being told off for it, and Scripture has never once handled this by making a man feel worse about doing it. 2 Corinthians 10:12 calls the comparing not wise rather than calling it wicked, and the Holy Spirit is the one who keeps a verse from becoming another thing to fail at.

And look at the phrase in the middle, because it is the diagnosis. Measuring themselves by themselves.

The problem Paul names is not that they measured against a high standard. It is that they measured against each other, which means the standard is arbitrary. It is whatever the people nearby happen to be doing, which changes depending on who is nearby.

You are measuring against a standard that shifts with whoever you looked at last, and a moving line has never once been able to tell a man where he actually stands. The Holy Spirit is the one who takes a man out of a comparison that has no fixed point, and the written word calls that arrangement not wise for exactly this reason.

And there is one more thing in there. Paul says we dare not make ourselves of the number.

He is not saying he wins the comparison. He is saying he declines to enter it. That is a different move entirely and it is the only one available, because a comparison you enter in order to win is still a comparison and it will turn on you the following week.

You are able to decline the whole arrangement rather than trying to win it, and stepping out of a comparison has never once been the same as losing it. The Spirit of God is the one who gives a man somewhere else to stand, and the word has Paul refusing to be counted in the number at all.

Two pots is a real garden

Let me say something plainly about what is on your step.

Two pots is two pots. It is not a small version of raised beds. It is not the first stage of something that will eventually be a proper garden if you keep at it.

It is two containers with living things in them, on a step, outside a house where a man lives. That is complete in itself and it is not a stage of anything.

You are looking at something finished rather than something partial, and two pots on a step have never once been a smaller amount of an intended larger thing. The Holy Spirit is the one who lets a thing be what it is, and 2 Corinthians 10:12 refuses the whole business of ranking one against another.

And here is what the comparison has actually been costing you, which is more than a bad feeling.

The enjoying is what goes. That is the cost. Those two pots sit on a step and have never once been stood in front of for the plain pleasure of it, because the looking always turns into an assessment within a second.

The pleasure was the whole point and the comparison has been eating it.

You are entitled to enjoy a thing without appraising it, and a good look at something has never once had to become a judgment about it. The Spirit of God is the one who restores a plain pleasure, and the written word calls the measuring not wise, which is to say it does not deliver anything worth having.

One minute on your own step

So here is the assignment, and the wording of it is precise.

Look at your own two pots for one minute without thinking about anybody else's.

Go out. Stand in front of them. One minute.

You are able to give one minute of attention to a thing that belongs to you, and sixty seconds in front of your own step has never once been an unreasonable thing to ask. 2 Corinthians 10:12 has Paul declining to enter a comparison at all, and the Holy Spirit is the one out there with a man standing in front of two pots.

Now, about the without thinking part, because that is where this will go wrong if I leave it.

Somebody else's garden will arrive. Probably within fifteen seconds. It will not ask permission and you will not be able to stop it.

That is not a failure. Do not treat it as one. When it arrives, come back to the pots. Look at what is in front of you again. It will arrive again and you will come back again, and you may do that six times in a minute, and the minute still counts.

You are able to come back as many times as your mind leaves, and an attention that wanders has never once meant a man could not return it. The Holy Spirit is the one present in the coming back rather than only in the staying, and the word says are not wise about the comparing rather than about the person who keeps having to return from it.

Look at the actual leaves. The actual soil. What is doing well and what is not. Not as an assessment. Just look at them the way you would look at a fire.