Competition and Conflict

 

Just about everywhere you look at the moment there seems to be conflict and competition instead of cooperation. Maybe it’s always this way, but it does seem to me to all be at a ridiculous and unnecessary level right now.

 

Why are people disputing over who got the vaccine first or who authorised it most quickly? It’s not a race! People’s lives and the welfare of our society are at stake here!

 

Why is a defeated President not gracefully accepting that his opponent won and is instead making spurious claims and pursuing doomed lawsuits? The reputation of a nation and the good name of democracy are being threatened, and for what?

 

Why are the UK and the EU still engaged in a silly war dance which everyone knows will (sooner or later) have to end in some kind of agreement at some point? Livelihoods and economic stability are being jeopardised simply to avoid leaders appearing to ‘lose face’.  

 

It all looks like a pathetic game, and easily could be dismissed as such, were it not for the fact that all of these has the potential for such drastic and destructive consequences.

 

Winning, maintaining power, seeking position, not backing down…

 

The power games are played out between people and between parties and between nations (and – yes – sad to say, in the church too. I could wax eloquent about that, but I won’t…).

 

One day all this power play will pass and conflict and competition will be no more.

 

That is the ‘day’ foretold by the prophets; a time of ‘shalom’ - peace, harmony, health, wholeness...

 

The Day of the Lord will come.