People can usually name Neil Armstrong as the first person to walk on the moon. After that, for most of us, it gets a bit fuzzy. Oh, sure, we can Google the answer in a few seconds ... but that’s not the point of this exercise.
So many leadership and management classes, self-help recordings, sales seminars, etc., started with some version of that question.
“Do you remember who was the second ...?”
Attendees might be allowed to discuss it for a while, but people usually couldn't come up with the answer. It turned out, though, that coming up with the right answer was never the point. Eventually, the leader revealed the secret of the exercise: the answer didn’t matter.
No one cared who was second. All that mattered was who was first.
It’s a pernicious kind of thinking. It belongs to the same divisive, manipulative, and deceptive motivational claptrap as the 110% lie. It’s the idea that whatever is first has more value and whatever is not first is somehow less than.
Let’s pause here and be clear: people who excel are worthy of praise and reward. But, someone is always going to be second ... and third ... and last. Are these people —who competed and tried their best— to be disdained just because they didn’t come in first?
This week’s scriptures ask us to trust: that God only asks us to love one another, to follow the commandments, and that God will ensure the victory. Our faith, love, and obedience are our only “contributions.”
We are not competing to be the best Christian, to be “first” in faith, love, and obedience. Giving 110% doesn't ensure the victory. It’s not that God doesn’t ask us to do things in the Kingdom; it’s just not a competition. Loving, serving, obeying, and trusting in God are actions all of us can perform.
We don’t need to know who comes in second because we don’t need to know who comes in first. In the Kingdom, none of those things matter.
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Will you be with us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? Join us at 8:00 on Zoom for a great hour of fellowship, scriptures, and discussion.
Blessings,
Steve
Contact me for the Zoom link.
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera if you don’t wish to be seen and to mute the microphone if you don’t wish to speak.
SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK
Read them here:
Read them here:
Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 9, 2021)
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
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