|
Written by Rev. Peter Cusick
|
We live in a culture where the pressure to be better, richer, more beautiful, tougher, smarter, faster, quicker is prominent--in short, we're taught to outdo the other guy. Much of life is this race against the other guy. You have to lose more weight than the other person. Or, you need more in your RRSP's than the other person. So much of life is a contest that sets us up to be identified as either a winner or looser. It's observable as we jockey for position on the 401, careful not to let the other guy in. If you don't maintain your competitive edge, you'll get swallowed up by the traffic and you'll miss your opportunity to show the guy you're passing that you're car is "FASTER". Always pushing, always seeking to prove we're the better man, always trying to out maneuver the next guy--this is the name of the game in our culture.
This is why there are small pockets within our culture that stand in stark contrast to that competitiveness. Anything that marks you as fellow-struggler stands against this competitiveness. Take A.A. for instance; there's a group of fellow strugglers. The competitiveness of our culture is gone. They are simply all fellow strugglers, trying to keep their head above water. I think that was actually Jesus' intention for His followers. So, from Jesus perspective His church is really just a bunch of fellow-strugglers, below par and slightly below average people depending on some outside interference from a God whom, they believe, is willing to help them! And that, is something to think about. |
