Culture of top-10 lists

Craig Brian Larson looks at what top-ten lists tell us about ourselves:

In a culture obsessed with the best, average people lose value. Top-10 lists reflect our competitive culture where winning is everything. A competitive world has few winners and many losers. Being the best, or at least ranking in the top 10, is important for our own self-respect. The good news of the gospel is we don't compete for God's love. God doesn’t favor the top-10 “righteous” folks, or even the top 50 percent. Instead, God loves us freely through Jesus Christ whether we are winners or losers in the game of life, whether we are rich or poor, beautiful or homely, smart or dull, moral by human standards or morally messed up. God's grace comes to us based not on our merit but on his mercy through Jesus Christ his Son. Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).

Amen.