3-9-2020

 Good Morning All, 

    1 Corinthians 13:5; “It (love) isn’t rude. It doesn’t think about itself. It isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep track of wrongs.”

   Do you know any “score keepers”?  You know, the kind of person who keeps “score” with others in life.  They keep track of how often they invited you over for coffee versus how many times you invited them.  They know how many cards or notes they mailed you versus how many they have received.  I had a friend who was a high school basketball coach.  He was dealing with a couple of parents who were keeping track of how much playing time all the players on the team were getting.  They tracked them down to the seconds played.  He was trying to win a game and they were wondering why little Johnny played 25 seconds more than little Billy.  He had a headache a lot that year.

    One thing about a “score keeper” is that they are never happy.  Sometimes you wonder if they keep enough scores so that they can be unhappy.  Sometimes you wonder if they have a special room in their house to keep all the scorebooks in.  They keep track of each and every perceived wrong.  They know very little happiness and there are times when I am them.  There are times when I keep score.

    I don’t set out to do this but somehow it happens.  I do exactly what this verse speaks of.  I get rude; I think only of myself.  I get irritable and then I start taking names and start keeping score and the great thing about being the scorekeeper is that you always win, at least in your own mind.  Yet here we see one of God’s truth; love conquers all.

   When we keep score, we do so in a selfish, self-centered, egotistical existence.  It is I, I, I and no one else.  We think we are the center of the universe and with this attitude we exclude all love.  This exclusion of love also excludes our own contentment.  It can take us a lifetime to realize that selfishness never leads to contentment.  Selfishness takes us away from God.  Love is God bringing us back to him.

    Love does not keep score; it simply gives of itself.  It can show itself in many small ways.  Yet one of the best ways is to stop keeping score.  All that keeping score accomplishes is to hurt everyone involved, especially the scorekeeper.  By keeping score, you never let go of the hurt that we feel.  There will never be contentment or happiness in any relationship where someone is a “scorekeeper”; there will only be sadness.

    So, we need to see and follow Jesus’ example and God’s directive to us: forgive as I (God) has forgiven you.  It is only through forgiveness that we will have contentment in this life.

Dearest Father help me to not be a scorekeeper.  Give me the strength to forgive those small slights that occur to me.  Help me to see that what you forgive is greater than what I can forgive.  Lead me to be your light in my community and show that forgiving one another is a greater good than keeping score.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret