Leave me alone and lift your own game!

It sucks when people feel threatened because you’re doing well. Just doesn’t seem right that rather than upping their ‘game’ they try to undermine yours instead. More ‘experienced’ people seem pretty keen at times to jump on anything they can to push you down. Even playing on perceived authority by suggesting things to do which are counterproductive and inefficient just because they say so.

This has got me thinking; Why people try to push others down at work and how we should react.

It is obvious people attack because they feel insecure and threatened about their perceived position. So, it’s all about pride really. God is pretty clear that He opposes pride. James 4:6 points to Proverbs 3:34 which states “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”. Proverbs goes on to tell us directly in 6:16-19 that the LORD hates “Haughty Eyes” (Haughty eyes being “Proud eyes”) and that being proud is a sin (21:4). Therefore when it seems I’m being attacked in order for someone to increase their own pride, they are in fact sinning against God, not just me. I need to keep in mind though that I am in no means better than them “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). However it helps to think about the fact that pride like this is a sin and God opposes it (so who better to be on my side right!).

So then, how should we respond to people trying to push us down? My first reaction to things like this is usually anger, however Proverbs 12:16 states “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult,” and in 29:11 it also says “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” Therefore I should keep myself under control and try to ignore insults such as these.

But how do I do this? It all comes down to perspective I think. Mum and Dad have been great at teaching me that in the end all that matters is that I have a personal relationship with God. Everything else is just stuff. Colossians 3:2 says to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth" and Philippians 4:8 suggests to dwell on whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise. When we focus on things that, really, when push comes to shove, don’t matter, we will get stuck on it and not move on. It just makes things a bigger and bigger deal.

People attack to try and protect their feeling of self-pride. This is wrong. Rather than getting upset when this occurs, we should instead be more concerned with our eternal salvation and progressive sanctification than to dwell on it too long.