Canadians are feeling pretty good about themselves right now. Finishing third overall at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang with a total of 29 medals isn’t too shabby for a country of just 36 million people. But what really makes them proud is that they beat the mighty Americans, who finished fourth overall with a paltry 23 medals. As a native-born Canadian, I know for a fact that this is how many of my countryfolk are feeling today. I’ve heard the conversations in the past. I’ve even participated in them. They go something like this:

Canuck #1: “Can you believe how well we did?! Twenty-nine medals, 11 of them gold!”

Canuck #2: “No kidding, eh? But all I care about is that we beat the Americans.”

Canuck #1: “Me too. And we did it with a population only one-tenth the size!”

Note that last point. It’s of great importance to Canadians. Never mind that their country is blanketed in snow close to 11 months of the year, and that most Canadians ice skate or snow-shoe to work every day (or so Americans think). Canada beating the U.S. when outnumbered 10 to one is sweet revenge for a people that get tired of living in the shadow of the proverbial “greatest nation on earth.”

But that’s where the mathematical comparison should stop if we Canadians want to keep feeling good about ourselves. For consider this: Norway, who finished first overall with 38 medals, has a population of only 5.3 million people.

To put the medal count in perspective, for every 10 million of population, Canada won 8 medals, compared to just 0.7 medals for the United States. But on that same basis, little Norway won a whopping 72!

Here’s my point in all of this: Comparisons only work if we get to choose the measuring stick. And for the most part, we only choose those that make us feel good about ourselves. This gets dangerous when we do this to measure our own goodness or worth. Compared to all the other bozos on the road, I’m a great driver. Compared to the guy at the next desk who’s always late for meetings, I’m a model employee. Compared to the neighbor who yells at his kids, I’m a great parent. And compared to all the liars, cheaters, and low-lifes in this world, I’m a pretty good person. God must certainly be pleased with me — right?

Speaking of such people, the apostle Paul said, “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12). God is not impressed by how we stack up against other human beings. He’s impressed only by the perfect righteousness of His Son. Though most Christ-followers have figured this out, we still easily fall into the trap of choosing faulty measuring sticks.

One of the places we’re most guilty of this is in our disciple-making. We tend to hold ourselves up as the model for the young disciple — not overtly, but subtly — by a lack of transparency about our own brokenness, our own desperate need for Jesus. We have the wrong measuring stick. The right measure is not a sanitized version of me. The measure is Jesus. That’s why Paul says: “Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). To put that in Olympics language: the goal is not to beat the Americans; It’s to ski like a Norwegian!

Dale Losch joined Crossworld as a disciple-maker in France in 1988, and has served as Crossworld’s president since 2009. He loves to motivate people to use their God-given passions to make disciples wherever life happens. Hear more from Dale.

All Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.