I think we can agree that competition has had a significant role in the formation of the human race. From people living in caves competing for food and resources, to the wars between civilisations, from disputes between colonised and colonisers, to the competition of who has most likes on whatever social media: it may have changed motivation for existing and forms in which it takes place, but competition has not ceased.
A significant difference perhaps that could be observed is that competition has become progressively more individualistic, less necessary but of no less psychological burden.
While often competition used to be between distinct social groups (wether tribes, families or nations) social media has increased competition between traits of individuals. We no longer dispute food, water and shelter: we dispute admiration, power and likes. We no longer are seeking means to survive in the jungle as a society, we are seeking ways to survive in the judgemental merciless jungle society has become, where there is no room for the one less beautiful, less intelligent, less funny, or with an average life.
The standards are also progressively higher for what sets one apart from society. Even if someone lives in a small village behind a bush and are the best musicians in the village, one youtube search on musicians shows us that a 5 year-old Chinese child surpasses by far the skill of that person. Even if we feel we are the best in our class in college on biology, google has multiple articles on a 12 year old that found a way to diagnose cancer for 50 cents in 10 minutes. The increased communication is raising the standards of what 'being good at something' is, and we are left wondering what is our place in a world population of over 7 billion people (all of whom believe they are exceptional at something). Suddenly, contrary to the generous words of grandmothers and mothers, to our surprise, we are discovering that, well, we are quite average people.
This is constructing a narcissistic and remarkably lonely society. While a tribe could generally rest knowing they have each other's backs to help them in case of an attack, we no longer have this confidence. We know our friends and brothers are our competition too, and we feel we have to measure up to what they are if we are to survive.
Sadly, this is not limited to academia or a particular industry. I have often found myself in a church context trying to measure myself up to the standard set around me, comparing even presence or absence of spiritual gifts. Are they better at hospitality? Do they serve more? Do I love as much as she does? Why do they have a gift of tongues or prophecy while I have never had that type of experience? Should I do something differently? Does God love them more than me?
I don't think this is new - many letters in the Bible address such issues. But I do believe the new dynamics in relationships and the unprecedented effects of social media have been affecting the way we interact as a community. Perhaps we have started somehow to believe that #blessed people are more loved by God because they are so blessed or #tksLord people are more holy because of their public thankfulness to God for their skills, talents and gifts.
We can respond to this in a few ways: trying to live up to it by portraying a more blessed life than we actually believe we are experiencing (hence, being deceitful), by trying to live up to it and be like them or throwing in the towel entirely.
I am probably guilty of attempting all three in different circumstances. Particularly over the last week while I tried to give a hand in a week of events I caught myself observing gifts other people had and wondering why I had never experienced such things - if I had to do or be something different. A passage in John came to mind as I wondered:
"Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”). When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” (John 21.20-22)
So, Jesus had just appeared to the disciples and Peter was having a chat with Jesus. Peter is reinstated and essentially gets a chance to state he loves Jesus three times after having denied him three times. There is reconciliation and Jesus gives him a new job: he is instructed to care for Jesus' followers, and is also warned about the death he would have. Peter then asks 'what about John?'.
I have a few reactions reading this story: (1) thinking Peter is silly; (2) being embarrassed knowing I am silly like that too; (3) love Peter for the hope he brings that even in my silliness God can still assign me jobs too.
It is pretty straight forward the way this relates to my ponderings of other people's gifts and talents, rather than thinking about how to do my job well, I was focusing on other people - which is not productive or useful in any way.
I do believe this tendency is a remnant of our competitive nature, believing that in the church we have to compete with each other as we would to find our place in a company or a social circle.
The key concept we fail to understand, though, is that as Christians, we are not competing for finite resources. God does not have a limited amount of love which he has to carefully allocate to people based on a number of pre-requisites. He also does not have a limited amount of spiritual gifts and jobs for people to do in serving him.
God is not the boss of a company he is trying to run with only the best qualified people, he is a dad accomplishing a task he could very well do on his own that is allowing all of his different small toddlers to help with. He is the dad out working in the garden, who has prepared the earth, dug the hole and let his child drop in the seed. He is the one who will water the seed, care for it and trim the branches as it grows, but the toddler will still believe that 'they planted that tree' - not out of badness, but simply due to ignorance as to the complex process happening behind the scenes they have no idea about. He could do his work well alone (and probably much more efficiently), but he lets us take part. For him it doesn't make a difference if we are the more skilled in dropping seeds or our sibling is the better at pouring the water. We may proudly say we are excellent 'seed droppers' to our brother - and this may make him think this means he should not be 'water-pourers' but a 'seed dropper' instead, but it is not a matter of skill, talent or preference. The father loves no less one or the other for the job they do. He would much prefer it (and everything would work much more smoothly) if they were to love each other regardless or their modest toddler gardening skills and tried to work together with each other and with dad.
Another important aspect of functioning as a Christian community is the importance of diversity. One of my favourite ways of reflecting on this one is thinking about the metaphor of the body of Christ. We have 37.2 trillion cells in our body. Each one of them is equipped with the same genetic material (aka, information), and yet they function in totally different ways - and this is a good thing. Depending on the environment, the cells surrounding, and the expression of this genetic material the cell can be in the brain, the eye or the toe and still have an important role in the body. Similarly, as Christians we are equipped with the Bible and the knowledge of God and his love, but we express it in different ways. Some of us see him through art, others through nature, music or intellect. Some of us are teachers, and some of us are bakers. And yet, we all work as part of the same body. For someone with the gift of hospitality to leave their gift unused in order to try teaching just because that seems to be more important not only will hinder themselves (as they will never manage to feel they are excelling what they are doing), they will also be hindering the body.
When I was around 18 I had to have a surgery performed on me because I had embryonary remnants of annexes related to skin in my spine - in other words, I had hair growing were my nervous system was! Needless to say, this was extremely painful and took a very long time to heal. This is how nonsensical it is to try to take up another's gift just to compete, to have a more flashy gift or feel more loved and necessary in the church.
So, how do we deal with looking at people that have the same gift as us but seem to be so much more skilled at it? What if we seem to be alright at baking two recipes for hospitality, grand at preparing an average Bible study and nothing special at praying?
Firstly, this does not affect if God loves us or not - he knows our circumstances and what is easier or harder, and he will not judge us unfairly. He knows the assets each person has, and will judge accordingly. It is better to faithfully serve with our average skills than to now and again serve with our superhuman ability.
Secondly, if you are an average person, then by definition you are exactly like the majority of the people in the world and the majority of the people that came before you - and God has worked through them. In fact, if you look at the parables Jesus used to describe the Kingdom of God, they are very daily parables. The kingdom of God is the yeast a woman used to raise bread. In a patriarchal society where men would pray thankful that they were not women, he chose the woman to be the one in the kitchen doing daily work raising bread with yeast (Luke 13.20-21). In a society where in agriculture the mustard seed was a seed less desired because if it accidentally fell in another crop it would take over and prevent other seeds from growing, that was the seed chosen to represent the Kingdom of God (Luke 13.18-19). Jesus did not pick the mighty scholars to be those close to him professing and teaching - he chose people from various backgrounds, often uneducated or considered untrustworthy (Luke 5.1-11). God's 'chosen people' was not mighty in war, knowledge or land as other kingdoms surrounding them such as Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians - and yet God did everything for them because he loved them (Isaiah 43). Therefore, there should be nothing wrong and no reason to fear should you be a perfectly average Christian with no monuments to your name or books written about your life. The very centre of Christianity, Jesus himself was described as not good looking (Isaiah 53.2), he did not come from a notable place (John 18.5) and did not come from a prominent family (Mt 13.55).
Therefore, if you ever have doubts as to wether God can love or use you, or why it is that you are less remarkable in any way than other people around you remember that the God we speak of is an expert in making extraordinary things with ordinary people. We may not be able to make ourselves, smarter, more eloquent, good looking or gifted - but whatever is in our hands, we can bring to him like a toddler to his father: and that is all that he wants. And, as Jesus showed, that is more than enough to change the world.
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