Imagine this: You get called into your boss’s office. You sit down and he says “Now this is nothing personal…” Has that phrase ever been followed by good news? “Now it’s nothing personal, but we want to promote you to Senior Vice President and double your salary!” I don’t think so.

I heard a guest speaker in church talking about this a while back and it got me thinking. We’ve impersonalized each other. The phrase “whatever it takes” is looked at as a positive. Didn’t Paul say "Don’t look only to your own interests, but also the interest of others?" How often do we actually do that?

When I have an agenda, it’s tempting to look at others in terms of their usefulness, or whether they are an obstacle to whatever goal I might have. How different would it be if we took Paul’s words seriously, (or Jesus’ “love your neighbor as yourself”) and treated the "Golden Rule" as more than a nice little saying? Better yet, what if we lived as if the game was over already?  As though Jesus’ death and resurrection actually happened and that He actually won the big game for us? What would that look like? What if we lived like we’ve already won?