Competition

by Zeke Flores

No parent wants their child to feel left out, unappreciated, or useless. That’s understandable, but the answer for some was to stop keeping score for sporting events so there would be no winners or losers and award “participation trophies” to everyone who showed up. “There, that ought to help their self-esteem,” some thought.

Unfortunately, it produced a generation of youngsters who became complacent, non-competitive, and felt they were owed rewards for doing no work. Then, when some attempted to enter college and found they actually had to compete academically with others to get in, some of their parents resorted to bribery and cheating to get their kids into the colleges they wanted.

Sad, but true.

Interestingly, many New Testament passages are framed in the language of Olympian competition. There are references to:

• training (I Corinthians 9:25; Hebrews 12:1),
• competing according to the rules (I Corinthians 9:27; II Timothy 2:5),
• running a race and boxing (Galatians 5:7; I Corinthians 9:26),
• and winning (I Corinthians 9:24; II Timothy 2:5).

But it seems to me that the competition is not against other Christians, it’s against oneself and the sin that “so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1).

See, a healthy competitive attitude can foster zeal and enthusiasm for the task at hand. Unfortunately, we let too many peripherals cloud our vision, redirect our focus, and impede our progress. Like the people we so often see whose necks are constantly bent toward their phones, missing the wonderful sights ahead, we can be so distracted that we miss the biggest and best destination of all.

Those distractions can be sinful, but they don’t have to be inherently wrong to get us off track; we just give them an inordinate priority. They can be the simple stuff life is made of: crowded schedules, the needs of a loved one, hobbies, or just plain spiritual laziness. It’s a daily struggle and takes sharpness and determination to edge out those things that work to slow us down.

Yes, it’s work.

Yes, it requires real effort, concentration, and dedication.

But in the end, awaits a prize so tremendous that it took the blood of the Son of God to make it possible. And there’s a winner’s wreath for everyone who competes and finishes according to the rules.

Now, that’s a participation trophy I can get behind.

"Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).