Keeping Score
“What get’s measured, get’s done.” It’s a maxim for a successful business.
But not in the creator’s economy.
A personal burr under my psychological saddle: when a leader says, during a worship service in which we are all supposed to be working hard at enjoying God, cites a number of people who came to know my hero Jesus because of something WE (read team here) did last Sunday.
I admit it’s a personal thing with me and I know it’s important for others to meet the greatest person that ever graced the dirt by walking on it with bare feet.
But we are a people who measure success and progress with numbers. That’s why we have accountants, computers and football coaches. We gauge our worth by the numbers.
I am passionate advocate of measuring things in business. What get’s measured, get’s managed or get’s done. Either iteration works. In our economy, leaders must allocate scarce resources (time, money, knowledge) to get the most important things done at the most efficient cost.
We show up in mass to watch a group of post adolescent boys “score” on a rival football team and are not satisfied unless our number is bigger than theirs.
The more square footage, the more horsepower, the more money in the bank is how we gauge our worth.
But not in the creator’s economy.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him,) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
When it comes to building relationships with our creator and fellow creations, measurement is not only impractical, but impossible in the paradigm of allocating finite resources to get the most important things done efficiently.
Our ability to love others is not a finite resource. If you are a parent and you have more than one kid, you learn that love for your children is not a finite resource that must be carefully allocated for some end goal.
Also, often some of the things we do or say without intention make a difference in another’s life at a time we not only do not have control over, but often don’t even know about when it happens. Time is not a one-dimensional resource in God’s economy.
Investing in relationships at any and every level is what we are all made for. The return is immeasureable.
