Competitive or content?

Be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).

People are competitive by nature. Everyone wants to be the Valedictorian, the MVP, the Homecoming King or Queen. A scientist might suggest that this is simply an expression of the instinct for survival—after all, the theory of evolution is built on the idea of "survival of the fittest." But the Bible has another name for competitiveness—the Ten Commandments refer to it by the term "coveting." To covet is to want something that God has given to someone else—their money, their property, their position of leadership, their wife or husband.

The problem with competitiveness is summed up by a bumper sticker I once saw: "he who dies with the most toys wins." Competitiveness insists that you must be the winner, and you will not have peace of mind until you see yourself on top. When parents get competitive, their children suffer—how many sports-minded fathers, or mothers of child actors, have stolen all fun from the lives of their kids by relentlessly pushing them to succeed? Competitiveness in the workplace has destroyed friendships, as former buddies backstab each other as they fight for a promotion. Competitiveness contributes to a corporate problem identified by Dr. Lawrence Peter—people continually seek advancement, even if it is to a position that they are not equipped to do well. This is called the "Peter Principle"—"in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." This happens because people cannot find satisfaction with their current level of responsibilities and compensation. Competitiveness sets God’s people against each other, and often ruins relationships.

According to Ephesians 2:10, God created us to do good works which He prepared in advance for us to do—in other words, the Lord has designed us to do certain types of tasks for Him, and has placed us where we can put our God-given skills to best use. Instead of constantly trying to get one-up on others, we ought to be trying to find out what God has in mind for us. We can be sure that He will give us everything we need to serve His purposes effectively; it is pointless to compare our situation to that of others, because God has equipped them to do something different for Him. If you want to be content, don’t look at what God has allowed others to have, look at how the Lord has blessed you.