The Truth About Competition

I love this time of year - the weather and fall football and finishing baseball!  If you don't like sports, you could be miserable if your spouse does!  I'm glad I like sports - even though Jim is a much bigger fan.

Unfortunately,  I think that competition can cause problems though.  I'm a victim.  Well, not really a victim.  But in the past I have allowed competition to get out of hand, so that I was overcome by my ugly nature.  Yes, I do have an ugly nature - because I'm human.  Thankfully, over the years the Lord has been teaching this slow learner that the only way to avoid this is to keep my focus on glorifying Him so that I can exercise self-control.

The basis of competition is doing your best to win a game. But sometimes it becomes more than a game.  Games are just that - games.  They are meant to entertain.  They are not meant to change life.  They are not life and death.  But sometimes people forget that.  They get so caught up in the game, that it seems like life and death.

Another problem is that for some participants, they want to win so badly that the game is no longer fun.  If the game is not fun, why play?  Motives of the heart are important.  Desires to exalt oneself are never blessed by the Lord.  "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly..." Romans 12:3

But probably the biggest problem is that for some people - whether participants or observers - the importance of the game is to exalt themselves or their team over other participants or teams.  It's more than just doing their best.  It's putting someone else down.  Their feelings toward their opponents are so negative as to be destructive.  And for Christians, this would be a huge problem - and not acceptable.  "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."  Philippians 2:3-4

Probably the best example I've seen of good competition was a couple of years ago when the Maryville, Missouri High School football team had a sizable lead over an opponent.  The other team had a special needs player who had not played and at the end of the game, when they put in him for a play, the Maryville players held back in their pursuit while he ran for a touchdown.  Now that is class, in the best sense of the word.  And it put a smile on God's face, as well as most people who saw it.

So I hope and pray that I can always exercise such class in competition - and have a great time while doing it!