defer your rights

As the world gets more crowded and sources more scarce, I find myself in an increasingly competitive and cutthroat environment. Everyone is shooting for the top, never content with what they have, always wanting to one-up the next guy. The goal is to do well; unfortunately, no one really cares about doing good. People don't defer anything to anyone - it's all about my rights and what I deserve.

There are those who are constantly fighting for their rights and looking out for their own self-interest, and then there are those who are not at all interested in themselves. They understand that there is a bigger picture that is being painted.

Before Lot and Abraham was a garden-like land flowing with water, with room for only one of them. Instead of fighting for his rights or competing to the death for the land, Abraham backed off:

Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left."
--Gen 13:8-9

Lot, of course ran after the more beautiful land where Sodom and Gomorrah lied, leaving Abraham with the unspectacular land of Canaan. The wiser one accepted his land in humility after happily deferring to his brother's choice. Of course we know how this turns out for Lot.

Those who know when to defer are truly the wise ones. Everyone else will find their treasures they fought so hard for quickly turn to trash.

More on this issue later, as it's been on my mind lately...