Competition

FRI., AUG. 31, 1984, 6:12 AM
FARM, STUDY

The word is written, and you are not sure how it shall develop into a full Teaching. You have a sense that it relates in some way to your conversation yesterday with Carol, but that is not likely to produce several pages of meditation. So, hear you are, functioning on faith again… faith that I, the Holy Spirit, can and will bring you words of wisdom, even after some time away from this practice.

Competition, o son, is an inherent part of the world I have created. Competition and cooperation have a yin/yang quality, somewhat like justice and mercy. Competition is a good that can accomplish much that I desire. Then it can reach a selfish, non-caring state, which must be countered with cooperative, non-self-seeking behavior. Yet productive cooperative behavior helps an individual or a group to be a better competitor.

My servant Paul affirmed, in a moment of zeal (and he had a number of these), that all men run in a race, but only one receives the prize, so run that you may obtain. This sounds more like the Olympics than like the Kingdom of God, but it is still a truth that has merit. Spiritual growth, in humans, has a certain race-like quality to it. There are goals to be accomplished, and sometimes these are achieved best and quickest when there is the image of a race, even “against” others. (Others can have a “spurring on” effect, which is a competitive characteristic, even as it is not really “against” another.)

My servant John had a vision in which he saw only 10,000 entering into final relationship with Me. The truth “many are called, but few are chosen” holds, but the number has no significance. I am patient, and I am helpful. Many more shall come back to Me, even though from many diverse paths. But there is nothing wrong with using some number as a “spur” to achieving. I have given you the goal of four issues of Ruminations each year. Four does not guarantee salvation, while two or three consigns you to hell… and yet I want you to compete so that you reach that requested number. Mostly because I ask for it… that’s why.

You have the remembrance from your days of coaching, these many years ago, that when you were less personally competitive and focused on overall quality of performance, your team played better and actually became champions. This should be an important spiritual learning, for it illustrates the truth that focusing on winning is not the best way to achieve. As your attention goes to the needs of others your own spirit grows, and you become a better “competitor” even as this is not your end or desire.

“The last shall be first, and the first last.” This bit of unfair, mystical wisdom says that as you try to be first that very self-centeredness makes you lose, even as you appear to win. You used the quote last evening, “No one can get to heaven unless he’s willing not to go.” This, too , embodies the truth that the best competitor is the one whose focus is not on self and on selfish, personal victory.