Time to stop competing

Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay. (Sallust)

A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. (James 3:3-6)

Harmony is probably one of the most difficult things for humans to achieve. Why is that? It could just be this propensity we have to always seek our own 'best interest' in life, or our insane desire to always be out ahead of each other in one way or another. Harmony can be disturbed when competition becomes the focus. It can be destroyed when envy leads us to not only desire to be 'ahead' or 'better than', but to achieve it regardless of the cost to us. It might just be that we desire harmony, but have no clue how to achieve it, having been in competition with one another for so long we don't even realize we are. It doesn't take much to achieve true harmony - just lives committed to one purpose. Oh, that isn't all that easy, you say? In Christ, all things are possible - even harmony!

The main culprit in the destruction of harmony in the home, workplace, or communities might just go overlooked because it is so simple - our words. All of us need to know the power of our words. We also need to understand the motivation behind them. It is one thing to say 'nice things' - it is another to actually have the internal motivation that means them. I can say you are beautiful, but on the inside, I could be envious of your clear complexion, thin figure, and perfectly coifed hair. The words said one thing, but the internal 'meaning' of those words was quite different. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can actually help us each bring our 'internal motivation' and our words into unity. We need the power of God's Word working within us if we are ever to achieve perfect harmony.

Sometimes we believe harmony is really the achievement of consensus - the big word that just means we came to some 'common ground' we can each agree to pursue. In terms of obedience to God, it is rare that we reach 'consensus'. God requires certain actions on our part - they aren't negotiable. One of those things is love - love one another as he first loved us. Harmony requires understanding and empathy. It means we get out of ourselves long enough to see things the way God sees them - allowing him to move our hearts as his heart is moved. That may see a little too simple, but if we began to see things and others as God sees them, do you think we'd still be in competition with one another? Instead of competing, we'd draw another along so they could enjoy what God provides so abundantly. Just sayin!

Christmas is not a competitive sport

Christmas is fast approaching and many will make the season all about the gifts they have to amass for the family and friends on their lists. Others will focus on the elaborate decorations and colorful lights. Some will find 'alternative' ways to have those 'ugly sweater' parties - perhaps even an 'ugly face mask' party this year in light of the pandemic. Right there in the midst of all the shopping, list checking, celebrations, and decorations, there can emerge this desire to 'keep up' with someone else. The desire to not be 'outdone' by the neighbors in the display of decorations and lights can drive some to place life and limb at risk as they climb ladders, shimmy up trees, and cross dangerously steep rooftops. The endless hours hunting for 'just the right gift' can wear the best shoppers out - even when they are shopping online this year! Whenever we try to 'keep up' or 'one up' somebody, our motives turn from celebration into competition. Have you heard the term "keeping up with the Joneses"? In a simple sense, it is the tendency we have to compare ourselves to another, then come to the conclusion the stuff the other guy has is something we ought to have, as well. In other words, we "benchmark" ourselves against others. 

You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17)

No lusting after your neighbor's house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don't set your heart on anything that is your neighbor's. While the neighbors may not have servants, we do notice when the neighbors have a weekly housekeeper; we may not have oxen and donkey, but we do notice the cars they drive; and we may not notice how much our house needs to be painted until we see the neighbor putting a fresh coat of paint on their home. How many times have we been guilty of "setting our hearts" on what the other guy has or has achieved? The downfall of keeping up with the Joneses is that we find ourselves becoming "consumers" of things, people, position, and even power. When we are just consumers, we are never satisfied with what it is we have.  We all have the natural tendency to "compare" - another term for this tendency is to benchmark ourselves against something or someone. We do it almost without noticing. Since this is such a "natural" thing for us, we would do well to begin to evaluate just how much this has been affecting our choices.

Did you know social status once depended upon your family name? In times past, the name said it all. Do you realize you have been given a new name in Christ? Your new name now says it all! You really don't have to work to achieve status - you already have it! Today, social status is often defined by some form of consumerism - the material or tangible stuff we can accumulate. The danger with this definition of status comes in the insatiable need for more. We want more 'likes' on our social media posts, 'followers' on our websites, and 'star ratings' on our product reviews. Things wear out, newer technology comes along, sleeker automobiles drift onto the market, and trendier clothes hit the racks everyday. My head is set whirling just trying to keep up with the names of the new automobiles out on the market today! Heaven knows my wardrobe is far from trendy! Social media likes and followers - you could go insane over that one!

The underlying attitude of heart God wants us to develop and use during this holiday season is one of contentment. We are given such status by our position in Christ - not the showy kind of status - but the lasting and permanent kind. In Christ, we have all needs met, all fears conquered. We stand as victors. What good does comparing ourselves to another really amount to anyway? In fact, it does just the opposite - it sets us up for giving into the lustful attitude of heart, the wishful thinking of the mind, and the insatiable drive of the eyes. We will do well to examine our "benchmark" in life. If it is not Christ above all else, we perhaps have drifted into a little of the "keeping up with the Joneses" philosophy of our culture. We need to "re-center" our focus in order to "filter" our wants from our needs. No social status is worth compromising our position in Christ. Nor is it worth compromising our family life, our relationships, or our integrity. This commandment really is for our protection, not for limiting us. It is a reminder to "re-center" whenever our eye is on something other than Christ - we should "want for nothing" when we realize our "status" in him! Just sayin!

Jam or Peanut Butter - you decide

Capacity is determined by what is attempting to enter the vessel and the vessel's "space" to hold what is entering. For example, if we have a used jar of peanut butter that has not been scraped clean and washed out, there are remnants of peanut butter in there. For all intents and purposes, we'd say the peanut butter jar was empty - we can easily cast it away as no longer of use to us. No matter how much we attempt to fill that "empty" jar with something else (like jam), that jar would never be totally full of the jam because it still was partially filled with the peanut butter. It may not be much peanut butter, but it still affects the taste of the jam and it takes up space that the jam would like to have enjoyed. Christ is kind of like the jam in our lives - wanting to fill the empty spaces of our lives, but he is competing with the peanut butter - remnants of our old ways of doing things, responding to things, and things we have held onto that we just don't want to part with.

The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's Spirit. There's no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God's Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's Spirit is doing, and can't be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit. (I Corinthians 2:14-16)

Capacity is defined as the ability to both receive and contain. The part of our 'self' that might be labeled as un-spiritual cannot receive the gifts of God's Spirit - things like truth, wisdom, and insight into God's ways. Why? To our human nature, these things are silly - they just don't make sense - they are counter-intuitive for us. For example, if you are an engineer and you are speaking with another engineer about how something is constructed (like a bridge), the force it can withstand under pressure, and the specifics of its design, you probably both understand each other. If you are like me, you are thinking, "I just want to cross that bridge - I don't really need to know how it is made in order to do that, do I?" The "details" seem silly to me because they don't "apply" to me - I have no interest in receiving that detail - I want merely to cross that bridge! Many times all we want is to 'cross some bridge' from un-spiritual into spiritual, without much thought as to how much of the un-spiritual is still within us, making it harder for us to embrace the spiritual.

To the one who has not invited the Spirit of God into their lives, the truths shared are nice, but they have no real relevance. They are not received because there is no "use" for them. To the one who has invited the Spirit of God to oversee their lives, giving constant guidance and tutelage, those truths, no matter how small are like that lovely tasting jam - they ooze into every crevasse they have access to and begin to affect that space. The challenge comes in getting all the "peanut butter" out of our "jars"! We cannot contain all God wants us to contain until we make way to have the "vessel" fully cleaned out. We sometimes try to embrace spiritual truths without really allowing the Spirit to deal with the things that need to be removed / cleaned up along the way. Try washing an "empty" jar that has contained peanut butter - that stuff gets into the tiniest nooks and crannies of that jar - making it hard to get all the peanut butter out on our own! You really have to work hard to get it completely clean (unless you have a dishwasher that does the work for you!). That is how it is when we "try" to clean ourselves up after coming to Christ - attempting to deal with the things that entice us to make wrong choices, but they are just hanging on to us like they belong there within us.

The key is to allow the one who has the ability to thoroughly clean the vessel to do that work - just as we'd rely on the dishwasher to remove the peanut butter! If we want capacity for the things of God, we need his Spirit to clean out our vessel of those things that "take up space" without really serving any purpose anymore. I cannot say what those may be for you - but I know that his Spirit will be faithful to point them out and remove them when he is given full access to your life. So, you might want to ask this question: Are you settling for "some" jam with a little of your left-over peanut butter? Or are you desirous of only pure jam in your vessel? If you choose the pure jam, you will need to turn the vessel over to him in order to allow it to be emptied so that your capacity is expanded to receive it fully. God wants full access - not to compete with the "left-overs" of our live's choices and things we have trusted in at some point in the past. Just sayin!

Anything I can do, he can do better!

Do you remember the saying, "Anything you can do, I can do better"?  It was from a song written by Irving Berlin for a Broadway musical, "Annie, Get Your Gun".  The point of the song was the "pitting" of the male actor against the female actress in constant competition to "one up" the other in increasingly difficult tasks - ranging from safe-cracking to living on meager supplies.  It was comedy at its finest - two sharpshooters challenging each other to hit various targets - trying to prove who really was best.  We are kind of competitive in nature, aren't we?  In fact, I wonder how many times we think we can "out-do" God?


God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.  (Ephesians 3:20 The Message)


The scripture is quite plain - God can do ANYTHING!  Even more than we could imagine, guess, or request - not even our wildest dreams could "out-do" God! Now, if that doesn't set us straight, I don't know what will!  The abilities of our God are often limited by our mind's imaginings - not his strength or capacity!


The main portion of this scripture I would like to focus on this morning is the last sentence:  He does it not by pushing us around, but by working within us.  I don't know if you actually read this when you considered this scripture.  I think we are most familiar with the teaching of God's "possibilities" in our moments of "impossibility" - the "he can do anything" part.  We are probably less familiar with the fact God says he "works" within us to accomplish his purpose!


Now, lest you think I am teaching we have some part in accomplishing the "big stuff" God actually does, let me dispel this thought right away.  God does indeed use us whenever we yield to him - but it is clearly God who accomplishes the mighty things we are totally incapable of accomplishing on our own.  Look at our passage again:


- More than we can imagine, guess, or request in our wildest dreams:  This suggests we don't even have the capacity to "think up" a plan as grand as God is capable of accomplishing!  When we imagine something, we are forming a mental image of the way we believe something should be.  Now, have you ever said, "If I was God...."?  You probably said it in some kind of jest, like saying, "If I was God, I would never have created slithery snakes."  Yet, imagine (form a mental image) of a world without snakes.  God created everything for a purpose - what would our world look like overrun by field mice if we had no king snake to choose them as their breakfast?  I think I'd rather deal with a few king snakes than a "herd" of field mice!


- God uses the imaginings of our mind, the wildest dreams we concoct, to "build upon" and even "sculpt" into the things he will use for his glory and a display of his grace in our lives.  He is a "gentle" God - he doesn't push his way into our lives - instead, he gently urges us to think outside the "box" of our imaginings to see things from a bigger perspective (his).  


- God works within - until his inward work begins to affect the outward appearance of our character.  Too many times I think we try it just the opposite - we try to "clean up" our outward appearance first, then attempt to work on the inward stuff later.  Now, I have to ask, how well has that been working for you?  If you are like me, it probably lasted about a week at the most!  The other thing we need to realize is "changing" the outward without the similar change taking place inwardly is like putting clean clothes on a filthy body - the "smell" of the filth still comes through!


I don't know if you are challenged as I am with the struggle to let God do his gentle work inwardly, but if you are, there is hope.  God has given us his Spirit to do the "inward remodel" we so desperately need.  Looking again at our passage, we find it is a "deep" work he does.  I guess this is because our preconceived ideas of how we are to be and what we are to do are deeply-rooted in our imaginings.  


In order to affect change, God goes "deep" into our "roots" in order to bring us to places of new heights in him.  Earlier in this same chapter of Ephesians, Paul says this about experiencing the love of God:  Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (vs. 18-19)  We will never experience the breadth, length, depths, or heights of his love until we allow his Spirit to begin the work of ending the competition between "self-control" and his control within our lives.  Let me end with this - ANYTHING God can do, we are incapable of doing ANY better!  Experience his best!