I was recently tasked with evaluating an executive.

During our conversation he paused to thank me for taking the time to offer constructive feedback. He said that, like most executives, he spent an inordinate amount of time and energy worrying about whether or not he was pleasing the board. And this was time and energy he could have spent working at his job.

There are many things you and I do that sap our resources and take them away from doing the creative and imaginative work we’re called to do. One of the most obvious is comparison.

This Sunday we’ll hear the popular story of the Prodigal Son, that wayward youngest child who took an early inheritance, squandered it, then returned only to be accepted by his father and mocked by his older brother.

While we often emphasize the love of the father in this story, there’s no discounting the heap of misery the older brother endured as he mired himself in comparison. He could not stray far from envious and jealous thoughts that bound him like a straightjacket.

The biggest problem with comparison is that it saps the energy we were given to create. Comparison is toxic. Let it go. Think about something else. The world desperately needs our energies channeled elsewhere.