The Moral Compass Chronicles
An audio time capsule centered around morality - encouraging people around the world on the importance of governing one’s life in a morally [and biblically] sound manner!
The Moral Compass Chronicles
Confronting Comparison & Envy: The Thief of Joy
Isn't it fascinating how a simple act of comparison can quietly creep into our lives, sowing seeds of envy that steal our joy? Join me on a revealing journey through the Moral Compass Chronicles as we confront this insidious thief of happiness.
Drawing from my own experiences as a musician and content creator, we explore how the constant bombardment of social media and the competitive nature of every day life can lead us into a cycle of unhealthy comparisons. Lets uncover how the singular fruit of the Spirit stands in stark contrast to the many works of the flesh, providing a path toward a life of genuine fulfillment.
grace and peace everybody. Grace and peace to one and all. Welcome to another. Rendition of the moral compass chronicles. I'm your man, I'm your host, I'm your tour guide. You already know my name is Eyon Johnson. You can find me on just about every single listening platform podcast listening platform, that is. You can find me on every social media platform. You can find me on TikTok, instagram Welcome back to TikTok, right. Instagram, tiktok, twitter or X at E-Y-O-N-J-A-Y-Y Two Y's at the end. You can find me on YouTube and Facebook at Eyon Johnson, and I really, really am excited to be back with you guys here.
Speaker 1:That last episode, that last chronicle, definitely took a lot out of me, and you know that's to be expected. I expect that when God gets to, you know having his way, man, there's really not much you could do about it, and so I am grateful to be back, though I have an interesting topic here today that I want to discuss with you all, topic here today that I want to discuss with you all, and it's about how comparison kills. I want to talk about comparing ourselves to others. Today. It's a very interesting topic to me and I'm very interested in finding out what you guys think. So please continue to comment and share and download and like and subscribe, all the above, and we will continue to rock out and do what it is we gotta do here. Um, and I want to dive right into it man, comparison, comparison, man, it kills. And I think there's a song I think it's jonathan mcreynolds has a song called Comparison Kills as well. They say that comparison is the thief of joy. Right, I think I heard that somewhere. Comparison is the thief of joy. And when I think about joy funny enough, and this is completely unrelated to the notes that I have, you know, I have a few bullet points. I kind of wanted to make sure I hit on.
Speaker 1:But when I think about that word joy, I automatically think about the fruit of the spirit and the Bible, the book of Galatians. It refers to the fruit of the spirit on one hand and the works of the flesh on the other hand. And shout out to my brother, my big brother, dj he. I remember he was preaching a message one time and he gave us that revelation and I had never really seen this until he said it and I had never really seen this until he said it. If you go back into your Bible, you will see that the Bible refers to the fruit of the spirit as the fruit of the spirit. It's in the singular form, but the works of the flesh happens to be in the plural Right Works with the S on the end. So the works of the flesh are plural and the fruit of the spirit is singular. So I thought that was a very, very um, a very good revelation. Um, and, quite honestly, just paying attention to what the text is saying, from my brother, um, but joy. I was talking about joy, joy, the thief of that.
Speaker 1:Joy can be comparison a lot of times and, on the other hand, envy. Envy is one of the works of the flesh, ok, and I'm not going to get too into what the other ones are. We're going to talk about the envy today, the comparison and comparing ourselves to others, and not in a good way, not in a constructive way, not in a healthy way, because there is right. If you're a competitor like myself, sports I play a lot of sports and I'm very competitive and you can compare yourself competitively, right? How am I doing in this particular basketball game I'm playing in, as opposed to the person who's on the other side of the court with me or the other side of the field. Right, there are different ways to compare yourself in a healthy manner, but there are many ways that we, as a people and as a society, we find ourselves comparing ourselves to one another in a way that is not healthy, and that is when your comparison starts to become the thief of your joy. That is when the comparison starts to turn into envy to some degree. Right, I hope you, I hope, I hope you're still with me. All right, I, I am.
Speaker 1:I am getting more and more into content creation, right, and a lot of you who have been following me for a while now you may have seen going back to, oh man, wow, when I started doing these style of videos and stuff like that, with this particular content which I then started to realize would become the moral compass chronicles, right, um, but if I even look back bro, oh, my goodness, watch this I can go back to 20, the early, the mid 2010s, late 2010s, early 2020s, when I was I was making content, content. I'm a musician. A lot of you may know I'm a musician. I play the drums and I try to fake play the organ a little bit and I fake play the bass and so, um, but I'm, I'm really a drummer and there was a while where I was posting a lot of drum videos and like even I mean even on YouTube. If you, I have a youtube channel that I created for my organization and you can go back to, oh my god, and a lot of the older videos are privated, but you, I can legitimately go back to the early 2010s and I just think about how even we, as musicians, we compare ourselves to other musicians.
Speaker 1:It's like constantly a competition, oh my god. And don't even get me started on the musicians who be on that fake love, oh my lord. See, I'm already going down a path. I didn't, I didn't plan to go here, bro, but maybe I'm talking to my fellow musicians now. Maybe this is for y'all now, bro, because, man, we have a very disgustingly fake way of being in competition with one another, bro. It's actually, it's actually sickening to the point where I personally, I don't even like being in that music scene no more, bro. I don't even enjoy playing music out anymore for real. Like it got to a point where I really stopped taking gigs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And anybody knows, as a musician musician, bro, you can make some really good money as a musician and I, I, bro, I hate the music industry, bro, the and yo, the, the gospel and christian music industry, man, it it is. If you're not careful, bro, just like you know almost everything else if you're not careful you will get lost in that sauce, and I have seen guys that I know, bro, get lost in that sauce and it is nasty work. It is nasty, nasty work, bro. So I I mean I don't want to go too far into that and make this about that, but I feel like that is a good exit. That is a way I and see me, bro, I have even found myself I've never been one to really get into the fake love stuff as a musician and showing fake love oh you, oh you, killing doc, I need to get like you. I need some lessons, I need some. Nah, I never really got into that type of thing, but I have found myself in the past comparing my skill level to other musicians's skill level and I never, really ever got too high when I realized I was better than another like particular musician. I never, I never did that, but I have allowed myself to get to concerned about what other people have thought about my musical skill level and, bro, this is 100% transparency.
Speaker 1:I heard Paul speaking, funny enough. I'm talking about the book of Galatians and the fruit of the spirit works of the flesh. In that very same book, chapter number one, if you go back and read it, paul says that if even an angel from heaven were to come down and tell you any and preach any other gospel other than the one of Jesus Christ and the one that the apostles have been teaching and now the one that the apostolic church, myself has been teaching, any, if even an angel could, were to come down from heaven and preach any other gospel, let them be accursed. That's what Paul says in the book of Galatians. Well, this is the moral compass. Chronicles and allow me to give you a chronicle of mine tells you that they have never, ever been, have they have never, ever found themselves comparing themselves in one way or another to another musician. I'm not going to say let them be accursed. I'ma just say I call cap. You're a liar. You're lying, bro. You're lying. You're lying, bro. You're lying sis.
Speaker 1:I know some killing female musicians as well. Anybody who says they have never been, they have never compared themselves to another musician, you're lying if you've never said oh, I'm better than this musician in your mind, even if you don't say it out loud, anybody who says they ain't never said in their mind yo, I'm better than this guy, or oh, oh, you know, I think it's better than me, or something. And a lot of times we find it difficult to say that, excuse my language. We find it difficult when another musician is better than us, but we have no problem when we're better than another musician. You know what I'm saying. When we're better than another musician, you know what I'm saying? Real interesting stuff. Again, this is just. This is one of my many experiences with comparison. Comparison, excuse me, being toxic. Comparison can be toxic, and every one of us, man, you know who you are, you know what you have dealt with. You too have had your experiences with comparison, probably both good and bad, both good and bad, and I just don't want us, because y'all are some good people, man, and I love y'all, I care about you guys. I don't want you guys to get too caught up in comparing yourselves to other people, because you will have your joy zapped from the very thing that you enjoy doing, whatever that thing may be.
Speaker 1:The book of proverbs. Um, I'm not trying to give too many scriptures, but in the book of Proverbs I'm not trying to give too many scriptures, but in the book of Proverbs it actually says that envying is like rottenness to the bones. Envy, envy is like rottenness to the bones. You know what? What it is? When something is rotting, that means it's dying. When something is becoming rotten, it is dying. When something is becoming rotten, it is dying. And a lot of times when something is rotting, it's dying from the inside out. That's a word. When something rots, that means there's something going on on the inside, it's dying from the inside. And when you see a fruit start to show those brown spots on the outside, it doesn't start from the outside in, it starts from the inside out.
Speaker 1:And comparison and envying more so envying, because not all comparison is envying, but envying. We'll do that to you. Envy will rot your bones from the inside out. To you, envy will rot your bones from the inside out. And watch this. Once that rottenness starts to show on the outside, it's more than likely too late. You're more than likely a little far. You might be a little too far gone now, because once you start to see mold on the outside, that means that it has already spread on the inside. Oh, my goodness, I didn't even plan to go there. So we got to be careful, we got to be careful. Comparison is the thief of joy, and when that comparison turns into envy, which is one of the works of the flesh, it becomes rottenness to your bones. We got to be careful, we got to be careful. I'm not sure what your situation is, I'm not sure what you're dealing with. I don't know what your hobby is and or your job, whatever it may be. Be very careful that your comparisons don't turn into envy, because envy is rotten.
Speaker 1:I have, oh, I have seen people envy one another, and it is ugly. I talked about the musicians, and it is ugly. I talked about the musicians. Can I talk about my, my, my, listen, I'm a, I am a son, I am a husband and I love women. I have a lot of little sisters. I have big sisters. I have seen women when they start to compare themselves to one another and that comparison turns into envy. Oh, my God, it is rotten and it stinks and it's ugly. When something starts to rot, it starts to decay. That's what it means. You start to decay. That's what. That's what it means. You start to decay and the gag is.
Speaker 1:A lot of times now we will envy what somebody else has Right, whether it's their looks or something they own, and that rottenness that is on the inside. Mind you, we're comparing ourselves to somebody else and now I'm going now that envy start. It turns into self-hatred Sometimes when I'm comparing myself. Now I was talking about even back to the music. Let me go back to my. Let me stop talking about the lady I'm not going to go in on y'all, let me go back to me. I use myself. About the lady I'm not going to go in on y'all, let me go back to me. I use myself as the example.
Speaker 1:If I now am finding myself comparing myself as a musician or as a basketball player, as a, as a salesman I used to be in sales as a content creator, let me let's talk about me. If I find myself comparing myself and my ability to create content, comparing myself and my ability to create content, I find myself comparing my ability to create content with someone else's ability to create content. And if I'm not careful and that comparison becomes unconstructive, that comparison will start to turn into envy. That comparison will start to turn into envy. And now I'm envying the other drummer and his ability to play, and the gag is we playing in church and here I am using a gift that God gave me and I'm envying your gift, oh Lord. Hey, I don't want to go too far into that and I'm not going to make this about the church, because the envying it's when you get to a point where you are envying someone else, that is deep rooted. That is truly a work. One of the works of the flesh, bro. See, the fruit of the spirit is, is is singular. That means it's all of the fruits of the spirit that make up the fruit of the spirit, but the works of the flesh, they are individually eat away at you as an individual, so that envying by itself will start to decay my insides, start to eat away at who I am as a person. Oh, my God, we got to be careful. We got to be careful.
Speaker 1:I have had some experiences and I've talked about comparison and envying and man. Can we talk about how we copy one another? Now, like the copying one another, one another? Because now, watch this, I, I like what I see from you. Right, we may like what we see, because we're comparing ourselves to others and you know, it gets so unhealthy and dangerous. We have our children doing it now. The youngsters are doing it more than anybody. Oh, lord, have mercy, help me, help me, lord, help me.
Speaker 1:And this tick tock thing, this Instagram, this social media thing, bro, it is a, it is a monster, strong-minded, spending all of their time on social media, spending hours and hours at a time scrolling their phones, scrolling social media, and we are seeing some of the most perfect looking content coming from the most imperfect people, and I don't know who needs to hear this, but none of us are perfect, and so I am. We find ourselves looking at this doctored up content that has been perfected. It has been run through every single content. Um, uh, video editing software. We have run it through our video editing software. Now we got this AI editing software all over the place, where you can make things that look like one thing completely change and look like something else, and so people have applied this editing to their lives to make it look like something it is not, and we are just eating this stuff up.
Speaker 1:We are spending all our time on social media and just digesting all of this edited content and we want our lives to look like that on an everyday basis. I don't know who needs to hear this, I don't know who this message is for, but that content creator that you see, bro, their life does not look like that. That model, oh boy, uh, oh, I'm about to get in trouble now. I'm about to get in trouble. Yo, that model that you fiending for, bro, she don't really look like that Sis. That yo, yo, he don't really look like that in person. Watch this. Let me take it a step further. Forget about them looking like that. They not really like that in person. Who can I go there, bro?
Speaker 1:I have seen some of the finest women on instagram and I'm a married man now, so I could talk about the past. I y'all, y'all can't do sorry. Y'all can't do nothing to me, no more. I got a wife now. I ain't worried about y'all, no more. So I could talk now I could talk, and I've never I never disrespect anybody or nothing, but I'm just saying I ain't worried about no other women's opinion, no more. For real. I have a wife, so I have.
Speaker 1:I have seen some women boy on social media and see how they present themselves for real and like who they make themselves to be to the world. Forget about social media now, because social media is just one element. We do this in public also. Right, where I am buttering up and I've done it also, I'm guilty. I'm guilty of this as well. We butter up who we are, we pretty up who we are, we make ourselves to be this specific person that we truly are not behind closed doors. And, bro, I have been with some fine ass women Can I call it what it is? I have very high standards for women. I have been with some beautiful women, bro, who look like one thing on social media and when you see them in public, they look like one thing for real. And they you know this and that and they, you know, okay, love it A lot of times. That's what attracted me to them in the first place. But then, boy, behind closed doors and I am a sinner saved by grace man Going to sleep and waking up with them in the past, completely different people, seeing who some of these people really were at their core, on the inside Right.
Speaker 1:Completely different people. Let us flee from these sorts of things. My brothers and my sisters, beloved ones, we need to be running from these things. Do not find yourself, if you have been listening to the sound of my voice and you feel like on the inside and I pray that you have been listening to the sound of my voice and you feel like on the inside and I pray that you're not upset with me. Okay, you feel like on the inside. Any part of that has applied to you, mind you, I just gave you my personal testimonies, a few of them, of things that I have been guilty of. Okay, so don't believe, please don't think I'm pointing a finger at you, because you know what happens when you point your finger at somebody. You got at least three fingers pointing right back at you, right? So I am speaking from experience. Some of these things I am guilty of, some of these things I have seen other people guilty of and I have had to endure. If you find that any of these things apply to you, come out of it. Come out of it. You are able to come out of it. You are not a slave to envy. You are not a slave to comparison. You can come out of that.
Speaker 1:If you find yourself that you are surrounded by people who who fit this shoe for real, you got some distancing to do, you. You got some distancing to do. You need to distance yourself from from from these people, because rottenness can spread. You ever see a a rotten fruit touching a healthy one and the, the exact spot that the healthy fruit is touching, the rotten fruit, you see, starts to become rotten itself. That's what happens. That's what happens and I hate to say it, but I have seen this many times. Oh Lord, have mercy, but you know what. God is calling you out of it, he's calling us out of it, us Stop I, we got to stop moving with the crowd, just because the crowd is moving.
Speaker 1:You see that, the people that you know, you around and your friends or your family, that's the type of time they be on, bro, where they, they compare them, constantly comparing themselves. And you see, that's the thing. When people compare themselves in public, it's typically in a way that makes them look good, bro, but you know what man, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if you just sit and listen to some people sometimes and all you hear is them talking about other people, all you hear is them comparing themselves and what they got going on to other people, how nobody got motion like them, and so on and so forth, bro, more than likely, bro, on the inside they are heavily invested in what other people are doing. Whoo oh nah, somebody not gonna like that.
Speaker 1:If you find that people are constantly comparing themselves to others, constantly talking about other people, constantly comparing how you know how what they got going on versus what other people got going on, how what they got going, their motion is better, yo, not all emotion is good motion. Not all emotion is good motion. Let's get hey, here's an unpopular opinion. Let's start. Let's start having motion with morals. Motion this is the moral compass chronicles. Right, let's start. Let's start having motion, but with morals, because not all motion is good motion.
Speaker 1:Yo, you find that people around you moving like that, bro, distance yourself and a lot of times these people they run in packs a lot of times. Hey, I didn't even I'm sorry, I apologize in advance a lot of times and listen, they run in packs A lot of times. Hey, I didn't even I'm sorry, I apologize in advance A lot of times and listen, I know none of y'all are like this. So this is just an eye opener and a warning for you, my brothers, my sisters, my fellow beloved ones. I want you to be aware of what's going on out there. All right, and I pray this doesn't apply to any of you guys, but you ever see and I'm done, I'm just about done, I'm gonna wrap up here you ever see a lot if you drive, if you drive often, you you know that a lot of times traffic don't really be traffic like traffic.
Speaker 1:Be looking backed up for real. And you ever, you ever like weave around the traffic and you realize that it was just a group of cars, kind of like driving together, huddled, and you pass them and you got nothing but wide open road after that and you were like, bro, what's wrong with y'all? It's like them, first line of cars, like in each lane, y'all going like you know a specific mile per hour and it's like blocking up everybody else. But and then you got to weave through them sometimes to like pass them and get away from them, and once you do that, you got nothing but open road in front of you. And then a lot of times you got open road until you hit the next patch of cars and they're driving together. Yo, people run in packs like that in real life too, everyday life too, and all motion is not good motion. All motion is not good motion. All motion is not good motion. All traffic is not good traffic.
Speaker 1:I don't know who that's for, man, I don't know who that's for. These are just some of my experiences. Even right right now, man, I'm creating content. I'm learning Premiere Pro even more and more. I'm learning this different stuff more and more.
Speaker 1:Bro, I find myself seeing I see one of my homegirls post a fire piece of content. I was just on Instagram an hour ago Saw my homegirl post a fire piece of content, saw my homeboy nasty with the editing bro, and for me that's like yo, I love this, but one one of these days I'm gonna get here. One of these days I'm gonna be this good and guess what? I, one of my homegirls bro or, um, not necessarily my homegirl, but somebody who you know I'm fond of and I we grew up together, low-key back in the day and we follow each other on instagram nasty with the content creation. I hit her up the other day, like yo, I'm having this issue right here with premiere how do I do this, how do I do that? And, boom, sent me a voice message back answering a question. Let me, yo, let me know if you need me to record a video for you and I'll send it to you, bro. That's how we're supposed to move. That's how we're supposed to move.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna compare myself, mind you. She's probably. She probably went to school for, for editing and and not editing specifically, but, like whatever you know, went to school for journaling and has taken courses for um, video editing and and stuff like that bro probably put has put hours into this stuff. Here I am now episode five of my podcast, trying to break down some videos and make some content. I got some nerve, bro, to compare myself to a professional. Come on, man, that's foolishness, bro. You know, you don't know how much time and work people have put in.
Speaker 1:Don't compare yourself in an unhealthy way. If you're gonna compare yourself, bro, allow somebody else's progress. Allow somebody else's success to push you in a healthy way. Shout out to my uh, my, my bro, even from back in the day, my man Corey. I've seen him post stuff like that, bro, about allowing somebody else's success to push you in a healthy way towards your own success. You're not, don't? You're not hating on them, we're not. What that's? That's envy. When the comparison turns into envy, it becomes rotten in your heart and you, because you begin to wither away from the inside out, and the devil is a liar, bro. That will not happen to any of y'all. So allow the success of somebody else to motivate you in a healthy way, especially if you're in that particular field. If you're doing the same sort of thing, have no problem reaching out to somebody sometimes. Ask for help, bro. That's the ultimate sign of humility. Humble yourself and you'll be exalted.
Speaker 1:This is the Moil compass chronicles, man. This is the moral compass chronicles. And comparison kills. It's the thief of all joy. It turns into envy and the envy turns into rottenness. Envy is like rottenness to the bones, and I don't know about you, but my bones ain't about to rot anytime soon. I love you guys. I appreciate you, man. Until next time, stay tuned. This is the Moral Compass Chronicles.