WHAT ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?
I’m one of the most competitive people you’ll ever meet. Just ask any one of my friends who have challenged me to a friendly game of ping pong, Jenga, Scrabble, or cards and they will tell you how much I love to win.
So you’ll understand how surprised some of my friends were one day when I butted in after overhearing them chat and compare other people’s lives.
“Ya’ll… life’s not a competition. Chill,” I said.
They looked at me like,
“Josie what are you talking about? You’re the most competitive person in this room.”
One of them chimed in,
“Yea what are you talking about? Yes it is!”
I could tell she was serious, and I was taken aback for a second. I’m a fiercely competitive person, but I’ve learned to distinguish between winning in a game or sport and “winning” in life. Life’s not a competition because life isn’t about winning. When you play a sport, the object of the game is to do better than the person you’re playing against and use the talents God gave you to beat them!
However, I’ve found sometimes it’s hard for us to distinguish between competition and life. Far too often, we see life as a battlefield and the people around us like the enemy. Far too often we place our identities and joys in the successes we achieve, hoping that they will allow us to “beat” out all the competition around us, get the upper hand, and win in life.
Yet, is life really about winning? And if life was a game, how would one win?
HOW TO WIN AT LIFE
If our objective of this life is to achieve eternal happiness with Jesus in heaven, then our main focus in this “game” would be to see how holy we can become—to see how many lives we can impact in a positive way and show the light of Christ.
If life was a game, it wouldn’t be focused on how many earthly successes we accomplish, how many degrees and accolades we pile up, who gets married or has babies first, etc… No, those things really wouldn’t matter at all if they didn’t help us to become better people! In fact, anything that doesn’t bring us closer to heaven would actually be hurting us in the game!
Mother Teresa once said,
“God doesn’t require us to be successful. He requires us to be faithful.”
I love this quote because it’s a great reminder for my competitive self that I don’t have to succeed all the time in this life to be a winner in God’s eyes. It’s not important that I win every tennis match I play, that I become a successful career- woman, that a million people follow this blog of mine, or even that I find a man to marry as soon as possible. What’s important is how faithful I am to the duties God has entrusted me with and the path He has me on.
I often forget this and get too caught up in what others think of me and how successful I can be, rather than competing to be the best version of myself and being faithful to MY purpose.
STAYING FAITHFUL TO YOUR PURPOSE
Many of you know I pursued professional tennis for about nine months after graduation. During that time, many people (often adults with successful professional careers) asked me (in a very good-natured way),
“When are you going to get a real job?”
They saw my pursuit of a pro tennis career as something “fun” and “cool,” but obviously thought I needed to grow up at some point and leave the racquets behind. While I know these people had the best intentions, it would really annoy me. Part of me just wanted to yell at them, “I’M DOING WHAT GOD WANTS OF ME FOR NOW!”
I knew tennis probably wasn’t going to be something I would do long-term, but it was what God was calling me to in the moment. I didn’t rush through that stage because if it wasn’t for that journey, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Every stage in our lives is for a reason. We must trust that and stay faithful to each of our purposes, not anybody else’s.
WHAT’S YOUR PURPOSE?
So I want to ask you- What’s your purpose? What is God asking of you RIGHT now, in this stage of your life?
Is He calling you to be a good wife, husband, mother or father? Is He calling you to be a student, to learn and grow in relationship with Him and others? Is He calling you to be diligent in your entry-level job? To be satisfied with Him as you search for a job? To go be a missionary for a couple years in a foreign country?
Whatever your purpose is, whatever call God has placed on your heart, whether it is manifested in a small whisper or through life circumstances, stay faithful to it. Don’t start looking around at what everyone else is doing, comparing your “success” to theirs. Because that won’t do you any good.
Remember, life’s not a competition.
However, if it was, it would be a competition of holiness against yourself. Competing against who you are for who you want to become. Fighting against temptation to grow closer to God and bring as many people as you can to heaven with you.
So stay faithful today my friends. Wherever you are, I’m with you, not against you.
From the depths of my soul,
