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This may be the hardest thing for a lot of people to do. I know it is for me. Coming from twenty+ years of playing in rock bands and living the secular musician lifestyle does that to us. My days were spent (or wasted) trying to succeed for my own purposes. In a cut-throat industry filled with greed, it was all about getting ahead of the other guy. Constant rejection and anxiety about performance just kept us stuck in a terrible cycle of "me first" thinking.

In the scripture, the Apostle Paul implores the Christian community of Phillipi to do the opposite. From his prison cell, he described how setting aside one's own succes and instead, lifting each other up, is what the Lord requires of us. Paul also describes how Jesus Christ himself humbled himself just by becoming human like us. Imagine the King of Heaven, the Son of God, Lord of all angels, lowering himself to our pathetic existence here on Earth. It would have been akin to any of us suddenly becoming a single cell, or a lone tree in a forest. Christ came down to our level, became a vessel for the will of God, and sacrificed himself for our sins. The Father rewarded Him with the seat of power in the Kingdom of Heaven. Lord of Lords, and King of all Kings.

Why then do we step all over one another to get ahead all of the time? We can be so greedy, manipulative, envious, prideful and single-minded can't we? This has a lot to do with our physical make-up for sure, and the structure of our societies is based upon individual achievement followed by community responsibility. But what if we took care of each other first, or at least simultaneous to personal gain? Wouldn't that actually work a lot better than what we have now? At the risk of sounding utopian I can imagine a world where people work together to accomplish success for one another. The incentive needs to switch from a self-centered, dog-eat-dog mentality, where we compete with each other for material goods and wealth, to a more community-based attitude, where the reward is based on mutual achievement.

The most likely answer is, unfortunately, that we can't. Christ was able to humble himself to our level because He was also part of the divine Trinity. The handful of great Saints and martyrs since then were very few and far between, and even the well-meaning Christians who try and practice this today are in a very small minority. This would be the most cynnical outlook, considering the difficulties involved, and the sacrifices necessary to act this way.

The real answer though, is of course we can. If we can persevere in a lifestyle of humility and deferred reward for our sacrifices that is. Only God can supply that type of reward. We may never see "success" in our lifetime, but we can SHARE succes with those around us.

Think of it this way; there is a luxurious dining room on a tropical island paradise, and the dining table is covered with the finest food and drink known to man. On each chair are all of the riches a man can ever need or want. Eating at this table is considered the greatest achievement any man can make. To reach this table, however, we must cross an ocean, with only stepping stones to walk on. In order to stand on the next stone, we also must either wait for the one ahead of us to step off, or we can choose to push them off ourselves and take their stone. Each stone closer to the island is bigger, more comfortable and provides more than the last stone we were on. In order to stay on our stone we must occassionally defend it against someone trying to take our place. The ideal is therefore to always continue moving forward.

Using this simplified analogy, how do we act in such circumstances? Are you the one who can constantly move forward, thinking only of your own survival and even actively pushing others off stones so that you can get ahead of them? Get to the table and greedily eat as much as you can and horde your leftovers? Or can you be the one who gets to a comfortable stone and say, "I'll just wait for the next person to move along and then use his stone", hoping to eventually get to the island and at least get to sit at the table and go through the scraps and leavings of those who came before you, waiting for the servers to bring another meal? Or can you be the one who gives up his stone for another to move forward, putting off your own reward so that others can reach their goals? Who will you be?

Then remember that the lavish dining room in the analogy is here on Earth, and that those who sinned and manipulated their way to get to it will regret it. For the reward in Heaven will work in the opposite direction. Those who gave of themselves and sacrificed for the furtherance of others will be at the front of the line. The meal will be an endless banquet of things that will make the dining table on Earth seem like a garbage dump. Sitting at the head of the table with be Christ Himself, and all of the guests will be lit up by the eternal presence of God Almighty. There will be stones leading to this table as well, where those who did not follow God will start from scratch. It will not just be an ocean to cross, however; it will be an entire universe of near eternity.

So make your choice. I choose God.