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Comparing and competing. Do these actions ever do anything good for the individual? I'm beginning to see how comparison and competition in ways to one up others makes it so hard to keep out of victim thinking.
Today's Bible reading seems to confirm this notion. Check it out with me now.
On the surface, it could seem like Paul is making a case that we are nothing more than misfits. It seems that he is arguing that all we have accomplished, even those things God has had His hand on, aren't all that much to take notice of. Knowing Paul as I do, this couldn't be further from the truth.
You see, Paul was quite an accomplished man. He was a hard driver. His type A personality got him into some amazing opportunities as well as in some deep trouble to boot. Not only is Paul heralded as the most prolific church planter of all times, he was also a very successful business man. This guy worked his tail off! Not only did he stay busy, he was pretty good at all he put his hand to.
With that kind of pedigree, why would Paul write words that seem to condemn all that we do? I think it is because Paul saw the damage that happens to each of us when we let our accomplishments be what bolsters our identity. It was when Paul compared his ministry, his work or his life to any one else that trouble started for this man of God. It was when Paul gave into the notion that he was in competition with others that his work drained the life out of him and those around him.
We can't help but to think badly or ourselves or others when we compare what we do with what others might be doing in their lives. Jealousy and all sorts of other ill feelings happen when we feel life is a competition. This is particularly the case when we approach our spiritual life with a strategy of comparison and competition.
After his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul settled into a mode of aggressively pursuing what was right before Him. He didn't worry about what others might be doing in the next town over. He let the Love of God flow through Him right were He was at. Though others might appear to be doing more, Paul settled into the rhythms of following what His God was doing. He didn't let others dictate his actions quite the way he use to before Jesus revealed Himself to this man of God.
Today's reading holds the secret to Paul's ability to let comparison and competition not take hold as badly as it use to in his life. I believe it was contentment that made Paul so effective in the tasks God gave him to do.
When we compare we are driven to be discontent. When we see life and others in this life as competition we can't help but to be discontent with what we have, who we are and what we do. The lack of contentment makes it possible for us to get on a treadmill in life that is so difficult to recognize and eliminate. What usually makes us get off the treadmill is a catastrophic event. A massive health scare, a family crisis, a series of troubled relationships, a total breakdown, these and other events make contentment something that we usually pay attention to when life takes turns we didn't expect.
I don't think contentment means that we don't have dreams and desires. I don't think contentment eliminates that natural drivenness some of us have been given. Paul continued to be one of the most driven men in the Bible right up to his death. We can be driven and still content. How? It is when we disconnect what we are driven to do from who we are that contentment plays the powerful role it is suppose to in our lives.
Think about the last thing you have been driven to achieve. Wasn't there a lot of comparison and competition wrapped up in what you were doing? Wasn't some of the drivenness coming from a place of wanting the success of whatever it was you were after to be part of bolstering the way the world would see you? That's the danger of drivenness when contentment is not in our lives. Drivenness leads to do and say things that can cause victims around us. Worse than that, when what we are driven to accomplish doesn't turn out like we want, victim thinking is quick to take over.
The world doesn't make it all that easy to be driven without out letting discontent control what we do. I have to believe that, just like Paul, it took a lot of practice in order to let contentment be what tempered his driven nature. Paul practiced living in that place of his true identity. Paul let the fact that He is God's Child be all he needed in this world. Everything else that he was driven to accomplish was nothing more than icing on the cake as far as Paul was concerned.
That's how we are to live our lives. If nothing more comes our way than the amazing gift of being God's Child, we are incredibly blessed. I guaranteed there is more for you to accomplish. What we need to be doing is letting our God-given identity as His Child be the fuel for the contentment that kills comparison and competition in our lives. That's the only way I have found that my victor status takes on the power needed to make things happen in the world around me.
What are you driven to get done today? How much of that drivenness is being directed by discontent? It is easy to judge this situation by looking at how much comparison you are doing in your life. You can also tell how much discontent is driving your live by how much you feel pressured by the competition in your life.
Live in the power of who you are. Let the fact that your victor status is guaranteed because God calles you His Child be all the force you need to drive you to get done what God wants for your life today.
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