Keeping up?

'Keeping up with the Joneses'

It is worth nothing for you to have the whole world if you yourself are lost. (Mark 8:36)

There used to be a saying that implicated the "Joneses'" as having so much and everyone trying to keep up with them. While the saying may not be as popular today, the desire to 'keep up' is always around us in society. We are marketed the fastest internet, the most expansive cell and data plans, the best hotel accommodations, and the biggest houses with the most 'toys' to enjoy on the weekends. Regardless of the current 'trends', the root problem still is man's extreme 'pride'. We desire some of the 'worst' things for ourselves, all because someone else has it or is doing it. All the while, Jesus is just sitting there asking for us to take as much interest in him as we do in 'keeping up'!

Did you realize that the phrase, "Keeping us with the Joneses" actually dates back to 1913? It has been around for over 100 years and actually emerged in a time we don't think of as being all that 'affluent' or 'cutting edge'. The phrase stems from the 'race' to outdo one's neighbor - not in spiritual terms, but in physical objects, the size of the home, the contents of one's home, or the income one attained from one's advancing career. The 'race' began in the late 1800's and was coined the 'rat race' sometime later. The desire for more and more became common place. The extreme exhaustion of competition is seldom acknowledged by those engaging in such a competitive manner, though. 

Competition in this world just seems to keep coming. If we are going to always strive to 'keep up' with the competition, we will soon be exhausted by all the striving required. What most fail to recognize is the 'circular' motion such competition takes. One 'achieves' this or that, but soon finds the achievement is 'outdated' and he is no longer 'keeping up', so he must set out to achieve all over again. God's good news is that there is no competition in his Kingdom. All are equally sinners - all are equally in need of a Savior. All enter into his Kingdom through grace - no amount of 'keeping up' work is required in order to 'advance' or 'be out front'. In fact, God actually says those who would be last will be the ones who will 'move on up' in the end! Just sayin!