Competing Love

We really love competition. We fight to be the best, to be the greatest, to be the most deserved. We ask: who is the best singer, the best bachelor, the best football team?  Who could be the next top model? Who can have the most ridiculous house or car? We have businesses competing with each other to create the next best thing. We even have churches feeling threatened by one another and then competing for the greatest number of followers. With this being such a rich part of our culture these days it is no surprise that we compete for love.

When my daughter was little, after her brothers would get in trouble for something, she would look up at me with a cheesy grin and say, “I wasn’t doing that like the boys were.”  And this type of thing is no different in the grown up, business world. We want to be the best employee or we want to be the greatest boss. We compete over jobs and more disturbingly we compete for attention. Instead of completing a team our tendency is to want to stand out or get ahead. We can even start to think we are better than others and want our boss to think so, too. When we feel threatened by someone else we too are likely to compete for the most followers by trying to get others on our side. And what if someone you thought was on your side starts getting along with the competition? What if they start liking them more than you? What if they become the next best thing? What if it didn’t matter?

What if you knew you were loved the same whether you were doing the right or wrong thing?  What if you knew you were loved the same as an employee whether you were the best at your job or not? What if you knew you were loved the same whether you screwed up the same thing once or seventy times seven? What if you knew you were loved the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? What if you knew that you could not be loved more or less than you are right now? What if you knew that you could not be loved anymore or any less than the person standing right next to you? That competing is a waste of time and energy. That we are all loved not because we deserve it for what we do. That we need not compete for affection or love because Love won us.

How would it look if we all knew we were loved like that? How would it look if we humbly appreciated our co-workers, neighbors, brothers and sisters and looked out for their best interest rather than our own? How would it look if we stopped competing with each other and valued others above ourselves? How would it look if we approached our relationships willing to die to serve; even to the point of sacrifice? How would it look if we all loved like Love won us?

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others., “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Phil. 2:1-8