The Final Score is …

In all sports, there is a human somewhere, whether he or she is hovered over an intricate computer interface at a multi-million dollar stadium or sitting at a table with numbers on a flip-board, keeping score. These folks are very necessary to any game that matters at all. For sports, scorekeeping is crucial to know who wins.

In life, there are also people all over who are keeping score.

Keeping score against family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and church. Some get so obvious, you can almost see the flip-board in their eyes.

“I did you a favor last week.”

“I bought lunch last time.”

“We took your car 2 weeks ago.”

“I called you last time, right?”

“Remember when I spotted you that $20.”

“We invited them to our house last.”

“This is the second time they’ve asked us to get their mail. Where are they going now?”

“Didn’t we just watch their kids a few weeks ago?”

“Is he borrowing my wheelbarrow again?”

Scorekeeping in life is tiring, in fact, exhausting. It robs us of generosity, grace, and even love.

There is no one exempt from scorekeeping. No relationship is safe from this act.

Scorekeeping, when left unchecked, creates an attitude of entitlement and bitterness.

Do you have score charts in your heart for people? Just certain people? Certain situations?

Jesus offers us retirement from scorekeeping with full benefits. Let’s burn the flip-boards and call it a day.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

—1 Corinthians 13:3-7 MSG