The foolishness of forced ranking

The foolishness of forced ranking

Let’s suppose that heaven and the Divine Judgement are indeed true. Do the Scriptures say that we will undergo a “forced ranking” and that there is a limited quota of people to be accepted into heaven?

What is most important is how well we tried to bloom despite the context we are planted in. Did we become the best persons we could be given the constraints we are placed in?

Forced ranking is foolish because it arbitrarily rejects people who are good or have potential just for the sake of meeting a metric or a quota.

What is more practical is to have a collaboratively agreed-upon standard of excellence, where the question is not “did I beat the other?” but “did we meet the standard?” I think this is the beauty of accreditations or stamps of approval – it does not force needless competition but recognizes what is high quality.

If the Divine Judgement parallels the fisherfolk catching fish and separating the good and the bad, the question is not whether the net is large enough (because the net is large enough!). It’s a matter of being good enough to stand together with other good people.

The foolishness of forced ranking is that we are fooled to think we are better than others; but the essential “ranking” we only have to heed is whether we outrank our previous selves. To be virtuous and a virtuoso; to be better today than yesterday.

—
Matthew 13:47-53. When the net is full

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 209: JULY 28, 2022]