Compete

Monday Motivation : Compete

Life is about drive. Someone said, it isn't about what you drive but what drives you. King Solomon said, anyone who labours, does so for himself because his appetite drives him on.
Proverbs 16:26 The desire of the working man is working for him, for his need of food is driving him on. BBE

Just as our appetite is a major driving force, so also is competition. There is an appetite for survival common to creation, whether animate or inanimate, every living thing craves for perpetuity. [My Offline Bible] Psalms 49
11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

These things drive man.

There's a fearful thought in man that the resources of the earth may not be enough to go round. And so for survival, they fight, which possibly may end in the destruction of other people, even if they will have to make the ultimate sacrifice to make it happen, so long they are able to have an assured sense of perpetuity.

But no one lives forever. No culture lives forever. Fights and competitions must be wisely handled before they birth their futility. Hitler desired to rule Europe, lives were wasted, today, the same Europe, bound together as the EU, not by any war, is headed by someone the majority won't readily remember or recognised either by name or in person. So why the fight?

Same applies in every industry and endeavor. Even within families, the base side of us tells us we must fight and compete. Even within Christian ministry, people still compete. Its arguable that competitions have driven the world to great heights and accomplishments but, is it really this kind of competition that brought us to the development we now have?

Yes, competitions are better than monopolies at the market place. But what brought about the monopolistic ideas and cravings if not the sense of wanting to outwit the other or probably totally annihilate them? Competition is better than monopolies because monopoly is the king of competition, it takes all after winning.

Nations have been conquered by other nations who still couldn't perpetuate. What's the use of conquering others, with vast resources and lives wasted, when even you would only be a tiny bit of historic mention, without being able to live on?

It is the futility of purposeless competition.

When we understand that each of us is here to fulfil a purpose and that the overall picture won't be achieved without each of us fulfilling that purpose, then we would view competition differently. The truth is that you can't fulfil my purpose and I can't fulfil yours. We aren't meant to outwit one another but to complement each other to achieve divine purposes in life.

My failure won't add to your success and yours won't stop mine. Yours can help mine and mine can help yours. That's exactly how we developed to where we are and not by competition.

But there is one competition we must engage in. That's competition with our potentials. There is the length we were created to go. There are possibilities embedded in each one of us. There are abilities within us coded in there to help us achieve certain things here on the earth. These abilities alone determine our limitations and we have the responsibility of removing every other limitation until our abilities become the only limitation in our development.

We must be driven by our potential. We must strive to be all we were made to be. We must take the opportunities that court our abilities to produce things God made us to replenish the earth with.

It begins with faith. The belief in what's possible which may not be obvious. If one can run a 100 meters sprint in 10 seconds without stress, the possibility is there, that with a little bit of more drive and effort, such can run it even faster. That's where competition is and not in outwitting others. If competition is merely to beat others, you may cut corners or do things to hurt the other competitors so they won't be able to maximise their potential for you to win even if you can still do more than winning the competition. In so doing, competitions against others are won but possibilities are never attained.

We must never be complacent. Potentials must never be handled with levity or with slack hands, if we are to fulfil purpose. There's a degree of attention we must give to make potentials produce. Possibilities don't happen by being static, only explorers discover new frontiers.

We must also be consistent in perseverance. Keep at it. Our muscles relax when subject to convenience. They release what's embedded within them when put them to work, and when the work stops, they behave as if they had never done or can ever do what they had done before. They will need a consistent push to arrive at where they were destined to be.

This competition isn't driven by how much comfort we have achieved, it'll be a great waste and disservice to God and humanity, if because you are comfortable and can now afford the pleasures of life, you stopped striving to be all you were meant to be. Our purposes in life isn't to attain our own comforts but to attain comfort for others, that's a higher calling than personal comfort. Who knows if the solution to the next worst human problem is in your fat and comfortable hands, but now you had retired into your palace to enjoy all your "deserved" comfort?

Let's strive and be driven to be all we were created to be and so fulfil purpose being a blessing to our world. That's the only competition we can't afford to lose.

Have a great and fulfilling week ahead. Share this and let it be a blessing to others too. Good morning!