October 14, 2019 – Click here to listen
One of my sons took his wife and twin daughters to the Georgia Bulldogs game Saturday. The Dawgs were favored by 24.5 points and lost in overtime. They played terribly and it was a nauseating game. I quit watching it when they started their freefall. This comes on the heels of the Atlanta Braves who made the baseball playoffs with aspirations to go to the World series this year. Just a few days earlier in their final playoff game they went down in flames to an undignified rout 13- 1. And who can forget the Atlanta Falcons who would have to get better to die and are so lousy that virtually no one expects them to win save a miracle, including the team, coaches, talking heads on ESPN, and fans.
My son wrote a simple summary of the game Saturday and I suppose it included his cumulative outlook of the sports teams in Atlanta this year. He wrote, “I hate sports!”
I feel his pain and agree. In fact, if anything, I’m more competitive than he is and by that I mean I want to win, and win big, every time. I often tell people that I wouldn’t get out of the electric chair to play golf. Both my sons love the game, so out of a desire to spend time with them, I took it up. I played for about a year, bought the best clubs one can find, took a few lessons from the local golf pro, and soon was shooting under a 100. One beautiful day I played fabulous and shot in the low eighties. I felt great about it, in fact I felt so good I decided to take the next day off and repeat the experience. The next morning the weather was even more beautiful than the previous day. I felt wonderful as I headed to the exact same course along with my youngest son.
As luck would have it we pretty much had the course to ourselves, no one was impatiently waiting and pushing us, and we could just take our time. However, by the time I got to the halfway mark at the 9th hole I was already shooting over 120. I was trying to hit a 7 iron shot over a small pond and flubbed it and instead landed in the water about 25 feet from where I hit the ball. I walked over to a tree and hit it as hard as I could with my expensive 7 iron. It broke in half and I turned to my son and through gritted teeth angrily told him if he wanted those blankety-blank clubs to get them or I was going to throw them in the lake. He quickly said I’ll take them and instantly moved them onto his cart. And with that I angrily stalked away and walked all of the way back to my car and left and have never played that stupid game again.
So, I was thinking about this conundrum this morning and have decided that perhaps I’m too competitive. You think? The insatiable drive to win has perhaps become a psychological disorder. Or has it? The Apostle Paul stated in 1 Cor. 9:24 – Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
The problem with the Bible is that people often take things out of context and generalize it to every situation. Satan tried to compete with God just like the world tries to compete with each other. He was wrong in doing so and will pay a heavy price. The secret is found in another verse and that is to keep your mind on Christ and Christ alone and do so with humility. Philippians 2:3-4 – Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Is competition bad? Heavens no. It is common in today’s snowflake society in some communities to try to eliminate competition. Some children’s sporting organizations play games in which no score is kept. Such policies ignore the benefits of direct competition for children such as teaching them to work hard to achieve a goal — and keeping score is one measurement of success. Competition was one of the foremost drivers to my business success. Of course, children must also be taught to be gracious when they are victorious and to give God the glory and adults must do the same.
If competition was bad why would Paul use competitive sporting events as illustrations for spiritual truths? He uses competitions among runners and boxers to illustrate the importance of spiritual discipline in one’s life. It seems unlikely that the Holy Spirit would inspire the apostle Paul to use something sinful to illustrate how we should have discipline in our lives.
I read somewhere that while the Bible does not forbid competition, it does forbid the heart issues that so many have when they do compete. The Scripture is clear that we are to do all things for God’s glory. “All things” must include competitions. Eric Liddel, before serving as a missionary in China, ran in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He demonstrated the kind of attitude one should have when competing. He said, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run I feel His pleasure.”
I wish our favorite teams would have felt that pleasure, but kudos to the teams that destroyed our chances for winning the grand prize. Personal note to myself: See how easy that was. Hey, it’s a start . . .
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.