When Competition Hurts

 

I Corinthians 12:

⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Jesus Christ calls his people to be “conformed to his image” and thus, different from the world around us. Nowhere is this tension seen more profoundly than when we are in competition with one another. As hard as we may try not to succumb, we Christians often get pulled into comparing ourselves to the person in the next pew. We want to serve, but we also want to be appreciated for what we do. Sometimes, however, our service becomes too much about us and how we will be perceived. We are often much better at “acting humble” than actually “being humble”. Also, the reality is that if we cannot listen to others around us who love us, we may miss our poor behavior altogether.

But in the end, serving the Lord and the church with our gifts is not firstly about our benefit or the recognition we get from others. Serving our church is about “Loving God with all of who we are, and loving our neighbors as ourselves”. It is about serving the Body of Christ as only one of its very many members. But all the gifts and roles of a local parish matter if Jesus Christ is truly going to be seen by the world around us.

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

In God’s wisdom, he has given different gifts to different people. Some are given more of one gifting or different gifts altogether. This varying of gifts can be seen through our abilities, commitment, servanthood, and the use of our wealth. But as the Gospel of Luke reminds us “to whom much is given, much is required”. Can we revel and delight in the gifting and abundance of another, as well as appreciate the stewardship that to which God has called us? It becomes very hard to love someone that we view as a threat to our prestige.

Let us continue to lay aside our desires for our own self-recognition (which is its own slavery) for it only leads to jealousy, covetousness, and unhappiness. Instead, let us take joy in the gifts God has given everyone in our body no matter how great or small, obvious or subdued, appreciated or unwittingly ignored; when we do, we will be turning our church’s Halogen lights to BRIGHT as we shine the love of Christ to a world shrouded in darkness.