To Win

My thoughts jump trains often, but I guess it goes to show how everything and everyone is connected. This is a preface to the seemingly random thoughts that I'm about to share. 

Ever since reading What'd You Expect? a few months ago, I've been struck with the idea that the root of all our problems and sin is pride. Pride is the worst.  

It all comes down to pride. Our kingdom come. Ours. Our kingdom over his kingdom, her kingdom, their kingdom... Our kingdom over God's kingdom. Dare I say that the majority of the disappointments we experience in life are because things didn’t go the way we anticipated?

I ordered a really cute dress, but it came too late and it didn’t even fit me.

I’m putting all this time and effort at the gym, but I’m not getting the results I want.

I wanted to get to Point B at a certain time, but because of careless drivers, I'm now an hour behind.

In all things, the root problem is always pride. 

We don't account for others and their problems and how it will most likely affect us. (Again, another reason to believe that we are all connected.)

Every day I wake up, I'm in battle. I'm fighting my sin, my lust, the weight of my debt. I'm fighting lies that I'm not good enough, thin enough, talented enough. This whole life is a battle, because it's a period of in-betweenness. From the moment you were born to the moment you die, that's life. And because I believe in eternity, I have to also believe that much of what the world strives for (i.e.financial success, becoming famous) is in vain.

So there I was, yesterday morning, getting out of the shower and I had this thought, "Here I go, another day in battle, as I get ready for the day. Am I ready? How will I win today?" And then it hit me. Maybe the only way to win each day's battle is to walk away from the fight, to surrender. Let me explain.

We are obsessed with war. We want peace, but in general, we're too prideful to sit still and to listen to what the world really needs. What the world really needs is people who care. It's hard to care about something when we aren't directly affected by it- when it isn't personal. That's why I believe that stories have to be shared. That's why we need people who are willing to share... but of course, I know that this is not always enough because reading someone's story without knowing them doesn't always 'hit a home run'. But I want to argue against this reasoning, because more often than not, stories are helping people.

How do we win? We win by taking the focus off of ourselves. If we are focused about caring for one other, instead of ourselves, there'd be no problem with pride. We aren't thinking about ourselves. We win by humbling ourselves, challenging ourselves not to waste another second of our precious time thinking about 'me', 'myself', or 'I. Stop being believing those lies you are telling yourself. You're worried about yourself, then? Why? Because you're thinking about yourself. I know it sounds repetitive, but just a day, a couple hours or even 20 minutes... think about someone else. Something I like to do is to imagine the people around me as babies or as kids. What kind of family did they grow up in? Did they have a lot of money growing up? Were they bullied or teased as a kid? Have they ever experienced homelessness, heartbreak, or the loss of a loved one? 

Try it; it puts things in perspective. 

God's kingdom is strange. Everything we've ever been taught is quite opposite from what Jesus teaches us. The last will be first. Those who are poor are blessed. Those who are weeping, those who mourn. Or how about the parable of the woman giving her last two copper coins compared to the rich folks giving up large amounts of money? The world tells us to think about ourselves, but Jesus teaches us to think about others.

Wanna win today's battle? Surrender to this. Surrender to God.

- D