
Episode #187
The Comparison Trap You Can't Scroll Past
Ever scrolled your feed and felt like everyone else was handed more than you? This one is about that feeling. About this episode We are continuing the Jesus the Revolutionary series, and this week Ade Birkby joins us from North Wales to look at the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and how it speaks to comparison culture. It is a story about a master who hands out staggering amounts of money before going away, and what his servants do with what they were given. Ade opens with the very modern problem of comparing our lives to everyone else's online, then shows why the one servant who buried what he had got the wrong end of the stick. Hosts Will Sopwith and Dan Orange pick it up afterwards in Conversation Street. Timestamps 00:07 Welcome and sorting out the tech 03:10 Alpha Course and how to get involved at Crowd 05:49 Comparison culture and what the research shows 07:17 What the UK study reveals 08:48 Reading the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) 12:58 What a talent was actually worth, and why the generosity is the point 14:59 Why the buried talent was called wicked, and the revolution behind it 16:57 The third servant's real failure started with comparison 19:30 Messy, risk-taking faith, and the reward that follows 20:51 Bringing it back to our own lives 23:49 Ade's challenge, it's not what you got, it's how you use it 24:13 Conversation Street begins 24:25 Dan on doing the next thing God asks, rather than comparing 31:26 Ade's own story, saying yes to leadership at Crowd 35:16 What messy faith really looks like from the inside 42:18 Alicia on testimonies and 20/20 hindsight 42:39 Dan's answered prayer, a family holiday they never expected Key references Matthew 25:14-30 β the Parable of the Talents (the main passage) Matthew 24 β Jesus foretelling the destruction of the temple, the tense moment just before this parable Matthew 25 as a whole β the three parables together (the ten virgins, the talents, and the sheep and the goats), which Ade frames as heart, stewardship and action Ecclesiastes 5:19 β being content with your lot as a gift from God Psalm 143:10 β "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God" Romans 12:2 β "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" The 1980s film Cannonball Run II , source of Ade's line "it's not what you got, it's how you use it" Inspired , the podcast Dan mentioned about everyday Christians around the world Quotes from the talk "The size of our assignment is completely irrelevant. The integrity of the stewardship of that assignment is everything." β Ade Birkby "God prefers messy, risk-taking faith over this safe, sterile, passive faith." β Ade Birkby "It's not what you got, it's how you use it." β Ade Birkby Conversation Street highlights Where the talk ends and the real conversation begins. Dan Orange picked up the comparison thread straight away, sharing something he had heard that week on a podcast about everyday Christians. The advice that stuck with him was simple, just ask God what is next and do what is next, rather than looking around at everyone else and measuring yourself against them. Will Sopwith noticed how eager the servant with five bags of gold was, diving in even though the amount could have felt overwhelming, while the servant who buried his talent seemed to have the wrong picture of the master altogether. Both Will and Dan kept coming back to the same point, that the reward was the same for the two who had a go, because it was never really about the amount. Ade shared his own story of saying yes when he did not expect to. When he and his wife Sonia came to Crowd, they were worn out and disillusioned after years in various churches, and had decided they would simply attend and nothing more. Eighteen months to two years on, they are running a midweek group, starting a prayer meeting and speaking almost monthly. When the opportunity came and they prayed about it, they knew it was what God was asking, so they said yes. The idea of messy faith clearly resonated with people watching. Ade offered a helpful angle on it, that the testimonies we admire looked messy from the inside too. The people living them often felt like they were going by the seat of their pants, even when the story sounds clear and tidy afterwards. Alicia caught this well in the chat, commenting that "testimonies have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight", and that it is far easier to see how God was moving once we are out of the fire than while we are still in it. Dan closed with an answered-prayer story of his own. Last year the family had saved for a holiday in Spain, only for it to be cut short after three days when his wife's mum needed emergency open-heart surgery. Flying home, they prayed together as a family for the chance to go away again the following year. His mother-in-law recovered well, and months later a customer unexpectedly offered the family his villa, with someone else giving money for flights and spending two weeks before they left. Dan's takeaway was to write these things down, so you can look back and see God's answers to prayer. Links Explore more and join the conversation at crowd.church Curious about faith? The Alpha Course is running now, and it is still fine to join partway through. Get in touch through the website. Crowd Church β a community for those who might not see the point of church.

