What would it look like to win at the game of life? This might sound like a silly question from the outset - we all know deep-down that life isn’t really a game. Competition is just for fun. Sporting events, poker night, a lottery ticket here or there - all just harmless forms of entertainment. It would be a silly proposition to compare life to a game if it weren’t the case that almost all of us live life as such. Most of us don’t even realize we are working and worrying our lives away in a constant state of competition, all the while hustling to win an undefined prize we might not even want in the end.
We begin life innocent enough, yet within just a short time the idea of “mine” creeps into our baby brains. As small children, we seek to control and maintain that which makes us more comfortable in the material world: my toys, my mommy, my bottle. As we grow into school-aged children, the quest for better grades begins. It will never again be good enough to be good enough; we will live in constant competition from that moment on. It will never be good enough to be as good as our friends; we must beat them in the competition of grades, acceptance, approval. Then we age into a world where we are defined by the good looks and reputation of our romantic partners. We have to have a cuter boyfriend or a more popular girlfriend than anyone else. It’s never good enough to just be happy in love; we must be better in love as we are in all things. We must win.
Soon careers begin. We measure ourselves by the length of our title and the size of our paycheck. Again, it’s not enough to make a comfortable living working a meaningful job on a manageable schedule. We must work harder, longer, and make more money than our neighbor. He just bought a new car. I must buy a nicer, newer car. Her landscaping is beautiful. Mine must be better.
In time, we spend the later seasons of our lives surviving off the shrewd retirement investments we’ve made. It’s not enough to simply live; we must be living better than our friends who didn’t invest the same way we did. My snowbird palace in Boca Raton has to be bigger than yours. And on and on it goes, until our families are burying us in competitively decorated caskets under obscenely large statuary. Bigger. Better. I win.
But what is the prize we are seeking to win? With every competition, there is an obvious need for a payout, a trophy, or at least fifteen minutes of fame for all the effort. Without a prize, what are we competing for? That’s just the point God made in handing down the Ten Commandments to his people as they rebuilt what community could be post-bondage. In lieu of slavery, where every minute of their day was accounted for in service to the endless tasks of the Egyptians, the Hebrew people needed some guardrails to hem in their developing society. As it turns out, the opposite of slavery is not freedom, it is community. It is selfless service to one another in that community. Abject freedom only enslaves one to his own needs. Consider God’s commandments in this way:
No other gods: A community needs to be unified under the lordship of one true God.
No idols: A community serves only each other and their one true God.
Don’t misuse God’s name: When you call out to God, everyone in your community knows it’s serious. Don’t fake it.
KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY: Because you can rest now, as a community. You can stop work and take time to care about one another. Community is holy.
Honor your parents: the model for community living is the nuclear family.
Don’t murder: because every life is sacred to the community.
Don’t commit adultery: because sacred relationships are the basis of true community.
Do not steal: because we live with respect for one another and each one’s property in community.
Don’t lie: Because truth and trust underpin all reality and relationship.
Don’t covet: Because envy fractures relationships and harkens competition.
Perhaps, as usual, Jesus sums it up best. When it comes to the endless cycle of work and worry this world seems to run on, Jesus takes a different approach:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25, NIV)
We’ve been granted freedom to live in community, to tend to and care for one another in mutual service. Jesus didn’t come to redeem each one of us so that we could win some cosmic competition by beating out our neighbors. Our salvation wasn’t secured on the basis that we keep trying to win the ‘best person besides Jesus’ trophy. We can’t win at the game of life if we try to beat out someone in the process. That includes ourselves. There’s a lot of room in God’s Kingdom. True success is getting there without competition.
Imagine a life where you felt free enough to just be you. With the time you saved not trying to compete with anyone, you were able to rest yourself, serve your neighbor, and glorify and enjoy God. That’s real #winning. Go get it.
J.M.D.