Winning

I'm actually writing on Sunday night but this blog won't post until Monday morning.  Having said that, I'm totally distracted by the Giants/Rangers game.   It looks like the Giants are going to win.  I'm not really even a baseball fan but this is the World Series after all ~ although since the games are only between American teams, why is it considered a world competition?  But I digress ...

What I really want to write about is owning my life, not abdicating it to the advertising/retail complex.  I've been questioning the whole keeping-up-with-the-Jones mentality for some time now.  I've never been money driven so I've never totally jumped on the Jones train, but I must confess that I have looked across the fence and acknowledged that the grass sometimes seems greener over there.  It's easy to look at bigger houses, fancier cars, longer vacations, nicer clothes, blah, blah, blah and wish for, even whine about, what the Jones have.  

Last Sunday one of our teaching pastors spoke on this very topic.  His conclusion, "Let the Jones win."  Let the Jones win.  How simple.  How profound. 

I have experienced the truth of letting go and not keeping up with anyone, let alone the Jones.  I've always owned the smallest house in our circle of friends; a fact that I am totally grateful for when I'm cleaning it or painting it or furnishing it or paying the tax or utility bills.  It's not that I'm against big houses, it's just not an expense I care to maintain.  Let the Jones win.

I've had my sports cars, even raced them in my younger days.  Now I'd rather own a vehicle with no car payment that takes me where ever I want to go, even if that means off road.  I don't aspire to owning a fancy car.  Let the Jones win.

I don't begrudge the Jones their stuff.   If God blessed them with riches, I hope that they enjoy their wealth and are good stewards of God's provisions.  I honestly can't worry about what the Jones have.  I am too busy trying to focus on the blessings that God has entrusted me with.  However great or small, He has given us each according to His plan.  And the measure by which we give back to others will be the measure by which we are judged at the end of the day.

So let the Jones win.  I have a different last name, and a different set of blessings, and a different calling on my life.  If I focus on my God-given path then I, too, shall stand in the winner's box ~ one that has been designed specifically for me.  It's not even about winning or losing.  It's about contentment, about joy, about inner peace, about blessings given and received.