One of the real tests of character and maturity is how you react to someone else’s success. That’s particularly so when they succeed in an area where you failed or in which you’re frustrated over not having achieved greater success. F.B. Meyer, a well-known author and minister in England, once shared the following experience to a few of his friends: ‘It was easy to pray for the success of G. Campbell Morgan when he was in America. But when he came back to England and took a church near to mine, it was something different. The old Adam in me was inclined to jealousy, but I got my heel upon his head, and whether I felt right towards my friend, I determined to act right. My church gave a reception for him, and I acknowledged that if it was not necessary for me to preach Sunday evenings, I would dearly love to go and hear him myself. Well, that made me feel right towards him. But just see how the dear Lord helped me out of my difficulty. There was Charles Spurgeon preaching wonderfully on one side of me, and G. Campbell Morgan on the other. Both were so popular and drew such crowds that our church caught the overflow, and we had all we could accommodate.’ No matter how well you do something, someone else will come along and do it better. So, here are your options: compare yourself to them, compete with them, criticise them, compliment them, and cooperate with them. The latter is what Paul meant when he wrote, ‘Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another’ (v. 10 NKJV).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.