The Idol of Competition

You're tuned into Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Justin Lester is an average guy who refuses to let Mondays control him. Justin is a husband, dad, pastor, student, and Jesus follower. He's done a lot, he's learned a lot, and he wants to see you at your best. Let's win Mondays. Hey, Justin. What's up today?

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. I'm happy to have all of you here with us today. So we're continuing this mini series on idolatry. And really, when we talk about idolatry, it's just things that we place up against God that we worship too much. And by worshiping them too much, it gets really our focus and our mindsets distracted from really being all that truly we possibly can be. And. And so today, I want to talk about the idol of competition. The idol of competition. Interestingly enough, a couple of weeks ago, I was able to meet with a pastor of a really, really, really insanely large church. Such an amazing guy, amazing pastor, great family, great leader, doing great, amazing work in the community that he serves in. And we had this conversation. We began to talk, and he joked that there was something that I did at my church that he said, you know, I went to my staff and told them, we need to do something like Justin's church. And I laughed at him. And I said, man, that's crazy, because I looked at my staff one day and said, I need to do something exactly like your church. As we continued to speak, we began to notice how so many times we were looking through our different churches, Facebooks, we were looking through each other's Instagram, we were going through each other's Twitter, calling it all in the name of the Lord, doing work for the community, when really we were just existing off competition. I was competing with him, he was competing with me. At the end of it all, the end of our conversation, we began to realize we weren't just doing that with one another. We were doing that with people from high school, doing that with people from college, doing that with people from other areas and walks of lives, older pastors, younger pastors, other individuals, other business leaders. And we were mistaking best practices and calling them and mistaking competition and calling it best practice. And at the end of the whole conversation, we laughed and I left out and sat down and realized that one of the things I needed to destroy in my own life was how I was worshiping the fact that I could win because I knew how to do certain things, because I work hard, because I push hard, and it Wasn't just working and pushing, it was competition. I couldn't live, I couldn't lead. I couldn't live well. I couldn't lead well. I couldn't be all I could be because I was so consumed with being better than someone else. What if you stop competing with someone else and begin to compete and compare yourself with the best version of yourself? I asked you this question a couple of weeks ago and I want to remind you of it. If you, 10 times better than your possible best self were to show up to your house today, what mannerisms, what habits, what thinking processes would they have that make them different from what you're doing right now? What if you stop comparing and competing with someone else around you? You compared and competed with the best version of yourself. That's a challenge I believe we have. And I truly believe that the anecdote to comparison is authenticity. That when I lean so fully into who I am, I don't need to lean into somebody else's life. Let me ask you this. Who are you afraid of becoming? What parts of you, what about you? What talents, what gifts do you have that you're afraid of fully becoming? Because you know, if you ever were to truly lean into you, if you ever were to truly be all that God called you to be, you change the world. I want to challenge you, be more apt to be you, then you are apt to be somebody else. Be more comfortable being you than you are trying to be somebody else. Let this week be a week where you love simply being the person that you are. You love being the person that's strong, being the person that's wise, being the person that's beautiful, that you are so unbelievably authentic, that you're not worried about being someone that you aren't. So how can you do that? How? What principles can we apply to this? The first thing I'll tell you is take an inventory of your life. What in your life do you really need? What in your life are you filling with the wrong things? Where places in your life do you need peace and joy and happiness? But you're filling with things that give you temporary peace, joy and happiness and not long lasting peace, joy and happiness? What inventory do you have in your life and where can you fill and find those spaces? Where? What laughter from your children can you take a picture of? Can you record? Can you ensure that are a part of your life so that your life is not dictated by somebody else, somebody else's affirmation or somebody else giving you something that brings you joy but you're able to lean so fully into you having the right inventory. Secondly, don't diminish your light looking at somebody else's highlights. As I look through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, one of the things I'm noticing and learning so much of is how everybody puts up all these pictures, but really nobody puts up the full story behind that picture. For example, somebody puts up a picture of them on vacation and you don't see the two hours of waiting in line for Covid, the 14 day quarantine after they get back from the vacation, the places that are shut down on the resort, the places that are open on the resort. I mean, there's so many different things we don't see, but we see the highlight. We see the end of the journey when they finish working out, but we don't see the beginning of the journey, the meals they ate, the intermittent fasting, the food they eliminated from their diet. We don't see the full story. And so if we base our lives off of highlights, we miss the full story story. Don't diminish who you are trying to live a life full of highlights. Live your story, whose highlights are dictating your light. Destroy that today. And lastly, be comfortable getting into a growth zone. You know, I remember as I'm working out and when I was way, way back when I began to have a trainer, my trainer taught me something. He said, justin, there's a zone where you have your highest level of calorie burning. And your highest level of calorie burning, Justin, you'll begin to actually unearth muscles that you don't really work. You begin to unearth body postures, you don't really work because then you're in this supreme powerful calorie burning zone. And in that powerful calorie burning zone, you're able to be your best. You're able to work muscles, you're able to burn calories, you're able to do everything you possibly can do. You're able to eat the best because you're in your best calorie burning zone. But that means you have to get out of your comfort zone. Own. What places are you falling into? Calling it comfort instead of falling into places where you can grow. You know, there's new muscles that need to be worked, there's new areas of your mind, your reading, your time, your week that can be worked. And I wonder what our lives would be like this week if we got out of our comfort zones and lean so fully into growth zones. Something I'll share with you And I'll leave you alone for the rest of the week. When everything started happening in black and brown communities, predominantly black communities of black lives Matter, I remember I was having so many different conversations with different politicians across the state that I pastor in. And I was having all these different conversations. I was talking to people. I was doing all these different things, and I began to feel so dirty when I left some of these meetings. I was having all these political partnerships and political arrangements, and I was getting people to tell me things, getting people to do things with me and for me. And I was doing things with and for other people. I was affirming them, but I wasn't really speaking up at the table. And for a while, I had to stop and get out of those meetings because I was getting so comfortable just being in the room that I didn't want to make sure I left change when I left out the room. I had to get out to a place where I stopped getting comfortable in my comfort zone and said, you know, I'm going to make sure I get comfortable in a growth zone. What places have you left yourself? What places have you not brought yourself fully to? Maybe this week is a week where you get out of your comfort zone and you jump into a growth zone. Don't find ways to compete or compare yourself to other people, but be the person that you're called to be because that person is needed in the world. When you say our affirmations with us, simply say this. I am me. I can be me. No one will ever stop me from being me. Have a wonderful Monday. You were made for this.

This has been Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Be sure to follow Justin online at MrJlester and online at www.jlester.com. see you next week. Go win. You were made for this.