Is This Why We’re Obsessed With Keeping Score?

“There’s only one winner—either you win, or you’re a loser.”

The guy was adamant. Life’s a competition, a battle, and there’s only room for one person at the top. If you don’t fight for that spot, you’ll get squashed. You exploit weakness, because if you don’t someone else will.

I listened and tried to understand how a life of abuse, in and out of jail, on and off the streets, would foster that sort of survival mentality. In those environments, you get tough or get hurt. This guy, like the others in the room, had experienced far more than his share of pain.

As they talked, I felt grateful. I was grateful that this wasn’t my first meeting with them, that we had a relationship, that they trusted me and knew I wasn’t there to offer platitudes or easy-button answers to tough questions. I was grateful for knowing that I wasn’t in control, that Jesus was touching their hearts and using our conversations far beyond my words or reasoning.

And I was really grateful for the guy who finally said, “We came here because we wanted a different life, right? Doesn’t that mean changing the way we look at things like this?”

I smiled. “Yeah, it’s hard to change the way you do stuff, but true challenge is letting Jesus change your heart. You have to surrender to let that happen.”

I’d never realized until that moment how much these guys must struggle with words like surrender, trust, transparent, vulnerable, cooperate, abundance, share, and serve. When experience teaches that life’s a life-and-death struggle for leftovers, Jesus’ message, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly,” must sound a bit suspicious.

God never intended for us to fight over the scraps. He invites us to sit at the table where there’s plenty for all.

Life’s not a game, so let’s stop keeping score.

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We’re headed to Arizona!

We’re going to spend a few days visiting and speaking at some Teen Challenge centers in the Phoenix/Casa Grande/Tucson areas. On Saturday, November 22^nd, I’ll join a few thousand other cyclists (and a couple of teammates from Front Range Freedom Tour 2014) in El Tour de Tucson.

This will be interesting. Between my minor accident/bike damage and the recent cold weather, training has been limited for a few weeks. The bike’s repaired, but we’ll see how a 55-mile ride goes when I’ve only been on the bike a few time during the past month.

On the plus side—the weather in Tucson will be about 70 degrees warmer!

I hope you’ll follow along. It’s gonna be a blast!

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