you're part of their success

Today in A Year with C.S. Lewis, Lewis talks about how pride is essentially competitive.

And he makes a good point. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with a little healthy competition. Whether it's playing a sport, a board game, or trying to do something better than other people, competition can push us to achieve better things that we would without it.

But competition becomes unhealthy when it causes us to be uncharitable. If we begin to antagonize the other team. If we demonize the other political party. If we make our opponents out to be monsters... we've gone too far.

Besides Mother Teresa's list of humility ideas from yesterday, a good way to avoid the easy trap of pride is through love. If we strive to love our neighbor, whether they're on another team or part of another political party or from another country... we won't be trying to one-up them all the time. We will rejoice when they achieve something great. We will not feel that we have to be better than they are... because we will want them to be great.

The cool thing about loving people is it makes you feel like you're on their team. You're PART of their success. So when they do great, you don't feel like it's at your expense. You feel like you've HELPED in some way. That their victory is YOUR victory too.

And that's the kind of win-win that makes the world a better place.

God, please help us to love each other, so pride is left behind.