when you work it out

From today's Lent reading:

[The disciples] came to Capernaum. When [Jesus] was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Mark 9:33

Arguments about who's better (either out loud or internally) are not only childish, they're simply wrong and misguided. If I were to argue that I was a better person than you, it would entail the following:

1. Knowing absolutely everything about myself
2. Knowing absolutely everything about the subject I'm comparing myself to
3. Accounting for where I came from, all the things I was given v. all the things I've achieved (pretty much the same, if you're Christian)
4. Accounting for all the other person's setbacks that were out of his control (born with a golden spoon or in a broken home)
5. Somehow quantifying and balancing all of these factors to come up with an absurd result

The point is, it's not only pointless, childish, and un-Christian, it's simply inaccurate. All I can ever know is myself, and when I work it out, I'm worse than you; given all of my blessings and my gifts and talents, I can never claim to be better than anyone because I know how poorly I've managed these blessings.

(continued)
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

I imagine when He sat down, He let out a sigh of disappointment. Why argue about something so stupid? Christ could have easily said "umm, hello...I am the Alpha and Omega...I win. Owned." But He didn't stoop down to that childish level. Instead, he flipped the entire situation on its head.

I can only hope the disciples didn't later argue about who was the least of them.

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...