Competition

 “Truth is like a magnet:  one is always being pulled towards it or away from it, depending on the polarity of one’s heart and mind.”       -Chuck Baldwin

To compete is to try to get what others also seek and which all cannot have. From earliest childhood we are urged to strive, to compete against others – to be all that we can be; and these “others” rarely have any alternative but to compete in return.

Competition is an accepted paradigm. It’s difficult for people to cooperate because it includes the concept of winning, of getting the prize and the honor and the satisfaction, for the self. Of course, pride has it’s place in this. It is especially seen in athletics where it is the motivating force that sends the gifted on to victory and glory.

What about the goals and ambitions of life?

 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun. (Ecclesiaste 4:4-7)

Solomon had observed and understood more about life than any other in recorded history, and his observation was that the motivation to work was not the accomplishment of something truly worthwhile; it is in short an incentive that came from pride and life thus becomes rivalry-based rather than mutual cooperation-based. That is why God judged it as vanity—something that is futile. The same holds true today.

I understand that there are areas where competition is not harmful, such as in certain games and excelling in certain areas of life that others choose not to give attention to. I realize that my understanding could be enlightened, even so, there are some of these same areas in which we are naturally better at accomplishing than others while at the same time we give no consideration in helping these “others” to become better than they are at the time of their loss. Take notice of this verse:

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)

In other words, if the “winner” isn’t thinking of himself as so high and mighty and full of arrogance, he will offer help, if help is needed, instead of strutting with pride. Here’s more:

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. (Philippians 2:3,4)

The promotion of fulfillment in material things, excitement and gratification of the flesh, and variety of experience is everywhere about us. It is time for some of us to rethink the  ”understandings” we take for granted. Just a little insight and the realization of a wake-up call can be heard. Is it too late?

Let’s look at this more closely.

The conditioning and harvesting of the mind begin at a young age in our “educational” institutions. The idea of competition, success and planning for a future is injected like a vaccine into our children’s brains from the very first day. (I say vaccine because this immunizes the mind against the ability to easily recognize the importance in understanding a Bible verse already quoted in this article:

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”

An example of how the darkness is so readily received by those who have repeatedly rejected The Almighty God is given: 

School programs are required to meet a certain standard for courses and exams set by the federal government and this is the preparation of students for success in a career sewn in the competitive, world-wide markets. (“Educational programs need such focus if the country is to retain an economically competitive edge on the global stage.” Oh, really? Is that all there is to it? The facts prove otherwise!) Education has only focused upon the intellectual mind for personal gain. (Factually, it’s for the gain of others – the elite, “the cream-of-the-crop” world leaders, the puppet masters.) Very few teachers who recognize that the core being of man is the spiritual man but those who do have their hands tied and can’t do anything about giving their students any enlightenment. Or do they? I think that most of the “few” have become too jaded to fight. Undoubtedly, there are government school teachers who do make a positive spiritual difference in some of their students’ lives but I will still ask this: How many public school (government school, government school of indoctrination) teachers have you heard of that have jeopordized their job because they taught their students about the ways of God, that their well-being can only be enjoyed by learning and walking with Him?

Let’s continue. The ones who happen to go to college and graduate are delivered fresh to the very competitive career market, which is an extension of the same system they just came from. They become ”professionals” and are lured with promises of respectable positions with an economically rewarding future. Their profession becomes their identity. They are now a part of a world that is very competitive and stressful and yet, exciting. They spend perhaps thirty or forty years locked and utterly lost in a world of false hopes and dreams, always trying to “getting ahead” as they constantly ”keep-an-eye” on their bank accounts and retirement savings. Once they are no longer useful to the system, they are cut loose from it and wind up in a retirement community to pass the time medicating the impotent remnants of their former selves. They then become fodder for another lucrative system, the medical and pharmaceutical industries. But the real fear, the real terror, the real horror is a sense of meaninglessness in life that is often masked by the need to “keep busy”.

There is an underlying sense of despair to which most (at any age) will not give time to think about, much less admit. From the beginning, most of us have all, perhaps unknowingly, been converted into being a part of the system that serves its’ own self and it’s the system that has been put into place by the god of this world, Satan himself. Most of us, at least here in America, are raised to  vehemently protect our system, our paradigm and uphold it as the most righteous belief that can be possessed by any people (Sort of puts me in the mind of a radical Islamist).

Just a side thought:

Have you ever paid any attention to the ridicule directed toward those who try to pull back the curtain and give others a sneak-peek as to what is really going on behind scenes (the picture that’s constantly being painted for us to see)? There is coming a time, again, when lives will be given because of truth, THE Truth, THE Way and THE Life.

After reading this little bit you have no choice other than to make a choice. Disregard this and you will always feel inadequate, frustrated, joyless, anxious, lonely, bored, depressed and worn-out. You will resort to some form of medication(s), if you haven’t already, sold to you at a tidy profit (whether it’s by the pharmaceutical industry or the street), to numb these uneasy feelings. You will continue to brush off these feelings as being part of the normal course of life as you continue to believe that you live in a free world.

But I ain’t done yet. There’s more.

A free world? The “understanding” of modern freedom most hold dear to their heart is nothing but a clever form of mental slavery, to which we have unknowingly consented. But who’s to blame? Who’s responsible for this horrendous conspiracy? (YES! CONSPIRACY!) It would be a mistake to trace our enslavement back to our parents, our government or our society. All of these people or institutions can and often do exhibit the characteristics of a tyrannical master but they are only the evidence of the problem and not the cause. The cause is, as individuals, we have been seduced into believing lies. It’s time, as individuals, to wake up. 

From the 1996 book, “The Paradigm Conspiracy: Why Our Social Systems Violate Human Potential – and How We Can Change Them” by Denise Breton and Christopher Largent, page 144:

“As long as we tolerate the strategy of having a paradigm imposed on us…, though we have the power to initiate a new paradigm, we don’t exercise it. Instead of flexing our paradigm-shifting powers, we project back onto society’s mirror what’s already there.

“Mesmerized by the images and seeing them multiplied by the millions, we conclude that there’s no other way to be: “We have no choice but to behave thus to survive.” “We must accept the hard realities of the control-and-dominate model.” Ignorant of our power, we follow the patterns, and the thousand reflected images don’t change.

“That’s our situation, personally, culturally, and globally.

“Knowing what’s happening breaks the mesmerism. Immediately, we’re more soul aware, because we name the de-souling dance for what it is. Deep memories begin to stir, and the next control type who expects us to fall in line had better watch out. We’re not accepting any paradigm that fails to resonate with the truth we’ve observed.” [p144, Breton & Largent, 1996]

As I’ve heard it said, “In a rat race the winner is still a rat.” If we indeed do live in a “dog-eat-dog” world, then what’s left over are for the winning rats. The bottom line truth is that these winning orchestrating rats are on a fatal journey because at the end of it all, they are rats that have lost their soul. 

Do you still endeavor to participate in such a deadly game?

Freeman Shepherd