“Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12 NIV
“Life is not a competition; life is about contributing, complementing, and cooperating.”
My thoughts today are about “the games people play.”
In every sport there is a scorekeeper, because playing the game is about knowing who wins and who loses. For that to be clear and fair someone has to keep score in a game. At our Academy’s basketball games, I look at the scorer’s table across the court and wonder why anyone is willing to be the scorekeeper. The scorekeeper is the person so occupied with the details of the record keeping about shots made and missed, fouls committed by each player and team, and starting and stopping the game clock, that I cannot imagine they have any leisure to actually enjoy the game itself. They assume the task of keeping the outcome of the game fair to each team. In dealing with the necessary minutiae of the contest, they easily miss the pure fun of the game.
I think that also happens in everyday life. Are you the scorekeeper? Do you feel the weight of responsibility to keep everything and everyone fair? You know the games people play; the game of “you owe me!” Have you ever thought this about someone, “I do so much for them; but what have they done for me?” Or maybe you’re puzzled, even hurt, asking yourself, “why did they do that to me; I have not done anything to them.” The answer is simple really. Life is not always fair; people are not always fair, but God is. Leave the score keeping to Him; that will be better for you.
You can make your life about what is not done for you, and about what is done to you. Does that make you happy or more generous and loving? Friendships are damaged because someone is keeping score. Marriages are strained and intimacy lost because one or both partners are busy keeping score. Career opportunities and promotions are missed when someone is keeping score. Relationships are not about who wins or who loses, so who needs a scorekeeper, really?
In real life, the one who keeps score to insure everything and everyone is always fair – and only plays to win – is the one most likely to lose! Don’t let that be you! You can miss much of the joy of life if you stay busy with keeping score. Some people keep records much longer than is healthy for them or helpful to others, even committing the record to memory and able to recite the most exacting details whenever advantage in an argument calls for it.
Life is not a game, nor is it only about winning and losing. Life is about contributing – about complementing – about cooperating. Life is not always about competition. A happy and fulfilling life is about people and your daily interactions with them. Live generously, intent on how you can contribute – on what you can give more than what you will get. Complement the efforts of others with your own gifts and abilities. Learn to cooperate happily; others will be grateful and respond kindly. Jesus made it very simple by His example and His instruction; “Love each other in the same way that I love you.” John 15:12 NLT. The Bible gives this gold standard of love, “Love keeps no record of when it has been wronged.” 1 Corinthians 13:5 NLT.
My prayer for you today is: live life freely; let someone else worry about the details.