June 2 – The Trap of Meritocracy

Gregg’s Reflection

For much of my life, I measured worth by performance — my own and everyone else’s. In business, the rules were clear: you worked hard, hit your targets, and earned your place. That mindset rewarded me professionally, but it also shaped my spiritual life in ways I didn’t see at the time.

I came to believe that God’s approval worked like the workplace. Do the right things, avoid the wrong things, and you’ll be blessed. Fall short, and you’ll be sidelined. It was a faith built on earning rather than receiving, and it kept me in a constant state of spiritual anxiety.

This is the trap of meritocracy — the belief that everything, including God’s love, has to be deserved. It fits neatly with dualistic thinking: the deserving and the undeserving, the worthy and the unworthy. But it is completely out of step with grace.

Over the years, I’ve had to unlearn this. Grace is not a bonus for good behavior; it is the starting place for life with God. As Richard Rohr says, the mind that divides the world into deserving and undeserving has not yet experienced the gratuity of grace. When I remember that, I can let go of measuring myself — and everyone else — by performance, and instead begin to live in the freedom of being loved as I am.

Scripture

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8

And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Romans 11:6

The last will be first, and the first will be last.

Matthew 20:16

Ancient Quotes

Our merits are God’s gifts.

Augustine of Hippo, On Grace and Free Will

The law says, ‘Do this,’ and it is never done. Grace says, ‘Believe in this,’ and everything is already done.

Martin Luther, Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 26

Modern Quotes

The lack of in-depth God experience leaves many judgmental, demanding, unforgiving and weak in empathy and sympathy, locked in a prison of meritocracy where all has to be deserved.

Richard Rohr, A Spring Within, p. 245

Most people imagine they are seeking after God, but they are really seeking after a feeling of being ‘right.’

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 69

Journaling Prompts

• How has the merit-based thinking of the workplace or school shaped your view of God?
  
  
• Where do you see yourself dividing people into “deserving” and “undeserving”?
  
  
• How would your life change if you truly believed God’s love could not be earned?
  
  
• What practices help you remember grace as your starting point?

👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 22 Reflection: Judgment, Dualistic Thinking