Don’t we all?

We’ve had a month of competitions: the Liverpool and Spurs matches, the Isle of Man TT Races, the recent election and omnipresent political struggle.  Competition is all around us, so built-in to ordinary life we take it for granted — even in the natural world, it’s the survival of the fittest.  Tens of thousands each week at sporting events roar their team on, chant slogans and sing their club songs, all to urge their heros to win, to beat the others.  Democracy and capitalism, indeed any political system is based on competition.

I was pondering this the other day when a light-bulb moment occurred: there will be no competition in the Celestial Kingdom.  Pause for thought: THERE IS NO COMPETITION IN HEAVEN!  No jostling for position, no keeping up with the Joneses, no trying to beat our neighbour to the finish line.  Can you imagine the absurdity of trying to create a better world than anyone else?  No, it just won’t happen.  It seems that competition is part of our mortal, telestial existence, but not the eternal worlds.

This gives us a clue on how to deal with it here.  Refuse to compete?  Always let the other person win?  No, I don’t think that’s right either.  Motivation is a key factor though.  Competing to beat someone else, to get ahead in the queue, or to destroy another’s hard work is not the thing, is it?  Challenging ourself, to improve and grow so we can help others is the Christian way, which is the example Jesus Christ gave us.  Remember the parable of the labourers in Matthew 20 — “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”