I was talking to a close friend of mine recently about accomplishments in life. As we have gotten older, we started to think on what we have achieved and what we have not done given our opportunities and abilities. One of the things she pointed out to me though, is that she does not want a life of just accomplishing a lot of stuff. For her, having a lot of stuff accomplished is just as bad as doing nothing at all.A thought: doing a lot f stuff.
Of course, me being a modern American man, I referenced sports to frame the conversation and what came to mind is a stat sheet stuffer. Now a stat sheet stuffer is a player that has the ability to put up impressive statistical numbers in a lot of categories in a game, i.e. a triple-double, hat-trick, hitting for the cycle, etc. Stuffing the stat sheet is an indicator that the player is highly skilled in all areas of the game and, for lack of better term, can put up video game like numbers. That type of skill level and performance would understandably draw a lot of media attention and cause the fans to say the player is good.
But, as one of my favorite sports analyst Skip Bayless would point out, stuffing the stat sheet does not mean it will win a championship. Having the ability to fill up all the numbers in the box score becomes fruitless if the end result is still a loss. And while most players universally would love to have the great stats and the win, if they had to choice, they would rather have the win over scoring a gazillion points.
Which brings me to this: in our society today, we have come to measure accomplishing a lot by doing a lot. Think about it, we have awards and give out cookies for the smallest things. As working adults, we stuff our resume with tons of experience that we may not even remember. Whenever we go out on dates, we stuff our dates with all of our good qualities. We just pile on and pile on the things that we do and while it all seems impressive, nothing is really gained from them. In Matthew 7: 15-23, Christ talks about knowing men by their fruits and highlighting that just because people appear to do a lot of good things (stuffing the stat sheet or trying to win points with God), does not mean much. The reason why doing all of those things are meaningless in God's eyes is because they are meant to glorify ourselves and not Him.
So lets change our mindset: the mindset of wanting to do a lot of stuff to the mindset of doing things and living a life that is meaningful. Living a meaningful life may not always to be glamorous or come with a lot of accolades but it does come with touching a lot of people's lives and pleasing to God. So lets not stuff the stat sheet, lets win the game.
