How Do I Compete With Myself? (Philippians 3:7-8)

In 2008, I left a full partnership in my former medical group and started my own company and laboratory. I knew how to run a medical laboratory, having been a medical director at several laboratories. I knew how to start my own business and manage employees. But what I didn’t know was how I would compete with myself?

During the prior 14 years, I had learned the nuances of interacting with other physicians. I learned to prioritize their needs and their patient’s needs. But now, it wasn’t enough. How could I become better than I already was and differentiate my new practice from my former?  I was left with the unenviable task of competing with myself. I had to reinvent myself.

With time I discovered subtle flaws in the systems I had previously set up in my other laboratories. By gently tweaking these systems, I was able to improve my service to physicians and patients and successfully compete with myself. But it was still unsatisfying because I knew that no matter how many improvements I made, I was still vulnerable.

As I reflect upon my spiritual life, I wish I had taken the same amount of effort and time to continually review my relationship with God, seeking ways to improve and enrich it. But for so many years, I was willing to slide by on an incomplete knowledge of who God really is. My knowledge of God was so limited and thus, my relationship was shallow and weak. I made decisions by my own will and volition and expected God to bless them, rather than seeking God’s will first and seeking to be obedient. I refused to reinvent myself and my relationship with God. I never had to compete with myself since I thought I was already the best.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.
Philippians 3:7-8 (ESV)

The Apostle Paul had every reason to boast of himself. His education, his position in society, his Roman citizenship-he did not have to reinvent himself nor compete with himself because he thought he was already great, in God’s eyes and his own. But once he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, everything changed. Any accomplishments he had achieved up to that point in his life were nothing but rubbish compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

What kind of God can turn our priorities and expectations about life upside down? Only the living God, Jesus Christ. Do you know Him? If you confess your sins and repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you can know Him! If God is tugging at your heart, do not ignore the calling.

Competing with yourself and seeking to improve by one’s own efforts will only lead to frustration and the fear that something more can always be done. Allowing God to take control of your life will reorient your priorities in life and allow you to seek to improve your relationship with Him out of gratitude for what He has done for you. And when this happens, the rest of life falls into place.

Amen!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.