Monday, October 5, 2026
Good morning from Colorado!
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1:9
Something about that Scripture makes me stop and think. We spend so much of our time believing we have to keep up with everybody else, but the truth is, the struggle isn’t new. People have always compared themselves to others. We’ve always wanted what someone else had, wondered why we didn’t, and sometimes measured our success by looking at somebody else’s life.
Today, we may call it keeping up with the Joneses. We see the house someone bought, the car they’re driving, the vacation they’re taking, the degree they earned, the promotion they received, or the business they built. And before we know it, our attention has shifted from our own journey to somebody else’s.
That’s when things can get complicated. When our attention is divided between what we have, what we want, and what somebody else has, we may struggle to identify what is really bothering us. The problem can hide beneath our wants. We think we need more, when what we’re really feeling is disappointment. We think we need to accomplish more when, underneath it all, we may fear we’re falling behind.
And sometimes, underneath all those wants is something we don’t want to admit: the feeling of failure.
But what if we’re looking in the wrong direction?
What if the question isn’t, “Why don’t I have what they have?” What if the better question is, “What has God placed in front of me?”
Peter had a choice when he stepped out of that boat. He could focus on Jesus, or he could focus on the storm. We know what happened when his attention shifted. He began to sink.
Maybe we do something similar when we spend too much time looking sideways instead of looking forward. We can become so focused on somebody else’s life that we fail to recognize what is happening in our own.
Today, let’s slow down long enough to ask ourselves: What am I really looking at?
Am I looking at what I don’t have?
Am I looking at what someone else has accomplished?
Am I looking at what I think success is supposed to look like?
Or am I looking at the path God has placed in front of me?
There is nothing wrong with having goals, wanting to improve, pursuing an education, building a career, starting a business, or wanting something better for yourself and your family. But if comparison becomes the reason we’re pursuing those things, we may find ourselves chasing a life that was never meant to be ours.
Maybe faith begins with learning to look in the right direction.
Before we ask God for more, perhaps we should take a good look at what He’s already placed in our hands.
I’ll see you tomorrow for another 15 Minutes with God.
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