Down With Competition!

I’ve been studying pride lately and pondering over ways to get rid of it. Long ago I realized how detrimental to spiritual health pride is, but I have been unsuccessful at getting rid of it. Pride just keeps resurfacing in me. I think pride is going to be a life-long battle for me! And I don’t like it because I realize that it is the root of all other vices.

But the other day I came across this from C. S. Lewis, "Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone." (Mere Christianity, p. 110). This gave me some new thoughts to ponder and I’ve begun to think of ways to apply the Truth Tools to destroying the feelings of competition within me. Competition was Lucifer’s downfall in the premortal life and has been a big problem for me all my life.

So . . . I’d love for any and all ideas you have about getting rid of a competitive spirit and thoughts on using the Truth Tools to do that.

Musings on the Olympics

I love the Olympics—especially the stories of courage and love that are highlighted during the games. But I always feel an acute hurt for the athletes who work for years and years and at the crucial moment make a mistake that costs them a medal. It all seems as much a case of luck as it does skill. But that’s not so different than everyday life. We have all had those kinds of experiences when no matter how well prepared we are things go wrong in the crucial moment and we fall flat.

In the Olympics only one person in each event can win gold, only one wins silver, and only one wins bronze, but hundreds of others have wanted, waited, wished, worked and failed to make it that far. That is the nature of competition. That is the nature of telestial life. But, thank goodness, celestial life is much different.

As I watch the tears and the dashed hopes in the Olympic games this year, I have been reminded that the greatest feat in life, the opportunity to return to live with our Father in Heaven, is not a competition. Everyone who runs that race will win. This isn’t a race that only the first person over the finish line wins. This is a race that everyone who endures will win. The only way we will fail to make it is if we give up and refuse to run the race. There is no bronze, silver, and gold in the race to Eternal Life—if we simply keep trying we will all be gold medalists!