1 Peter 4: 10-11
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
Hubris
At lunch Sunday, the TV was showing a couple ice skating at the Olympics. How the couple strived to be the best, to win! A few days earlier, a downhill skier was also striving, putting everything on the line, and crashed in a heart wrenching way that touched many.
This got me thinking about what we strive for. We don’t vie for the Nobel prize or the Super Bowl championship but we experience a high when we aim for something and judge the results with a YES! I did it. It is exhilarating. It’s the best.
On the radio recently, I heard a minister telling of the experience where a group of ministers kept track of how many baptisms each performed in a year. Gradually it became a competition. He realized that his sermons, over time, were crafted to urge people for baptism at the expense of more important words about lives and our place in living the Christian message. He was taken aback that winning, being judged best, diminished what he was called to do.
The community of St. John’s does so much service work for which I am grateful, but we should guard against hubris. I live in a competitive and judgmental society and must ponder the reasons why I do what I do. I aspire to do the things God would wish me to do. I enjoy being a part of a community in ministry to others. Doing good feels good. I hope what I choose to do in service is focused on the other, not about what’s in it for me.
Jane Metcalf