Faith Reflections

Beyond Comparing Apples and Oranges

“Don’t compare apples and oranges” is how the classic bit of wisdom goes. The advice is valid for it’s impossible to compare two things that are not at all similar.

So when it comes to God’s fruit basket of people just how many different kinds of “fruits” do people come in? We often try lumping ourselves together with other people who seem similar in one way or another to us. If we’re honest we’re motivated to do so for the purpose of comparison more than for creating common ground or a sense of community. We want to identify the winners and losers. It’s risky business, for the delight at coming out the winner is more often than not counterbalanced by the despair of coming out the loser.

The reality is that when we try grouping similar people together for comparison purposes we have to divide them up into ever smaller and smaller groups because we keep finding ways in which any two people are dissimilar. Eventually all the groups are groups of one! It turns out God has as many varieties of “fruit” when it comes to people as there are people. In God’s garden, when you sort us all out, we’re all one of a kind!

I’ll admit I have had my share of struggles of playing the comparison game. I’ve even written a book on the subject by that title, The Comparison Game. It’s a game we never win! Comparing looks, jobs, health, money, cars, houses, relationships, opportunities, and anything else makes little sense because each of us is incomparable!

Each of us is called to be the self God’s created for us to be. Comparing apples and oranges doesn’t work with fruit and it doesn’t work with people either!