What is on the right side of your AND?
AND is the foe of focus, diluter of dedication, enemy of effort, and the magnifier of ME.
There was a time that I was a huge NBA fan. Not so much anymore. I still watch, maybe cheer (at times), but AND is in the way of the NBA being great.
On several occasions over the past few years I have heard star players interviewed about their goals or hopes for the season or their team or career. They use AND. It troubles me. They say something like, "I want to win the championship AND lead the league in scoring. I want to win the championship AND make the All-Star game." Now in many ways there is nothing wrong with thinking it would be cool to lead the league in scoring or making the All-Star game. However, sometimes the focus on the personal goal will keep the team goal from happening.
AND gets in the way. The focus on the right side of AND makes it hard to accomplish what is stated on the left side of AND. Too often it becomes a ME focus. AND has a habit of doing that... but not always. At the risk of sounding too old-school or idealistic, it is hard to imagine Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, or Michael Jordan saying anything but, "win a championship".
Now it is easy to pick on NBA players, but we all must be careful of what we put on the right side of AND.
Paul said, "To live is Christ AND...
- drive a nice car?
- be popular?
- lead a major ministry?
- be healthy?
- be on the cutting edge?
- keep from sinning?
- be liked?
- retire?
Nope. Paul said, "To live is Christ AND to die is gain".
What is on the right side of your AND?