As my family and I watch the Olympics I am awestruck at all the athletes. All there training, hard work, sacrifice and discipline has brought them to this place of competing with the best in the the world. There goal is the gold and their aim is to out do the last performance. These outstanding athletes have given their life to accomplishing outrageous achievements. They need the competition to push them, to drive them, to train.
Their diligence has paid off and their reward is to compete in the world Olympics, the next step in their love of the game. Some of the young people we have watched have outdone there personal best but they still did not win a medal. Somebody was still better. Some have crashed, failed, fallen or had been disqualified. The competition's over before it even began. Yet others have overcome unbelievable odds. They have pushed past there heartache or pain and gave their sport all they had. With broken bones or broken hearts, they performed and competed with such grace. Even if they did not walk away with a medal around their neck, they had conquered something greater. Defeat of the soul.
Earlier this week I was caught in the middle of a competition and I felt like the judge. One person was performing a task that another had done before hand, and doing a much better job at it. Yet, I noticed that this person's goal wasn't about performing well but performing better than the last person. It seemed to be their goal to out do the other but not necessarily excel in the task. And here I am being asked the question of which I prefer. Who Gets the gold? My words of affirmation would be a gold medal around someones neck. (O.k. I may be being a little dramatic, but you can see my point, right?)
The spirit of competition can be a good thing or a very ugly thing. In one way it drives us to excellence. But in other ways our only job may be to out do or out shine our competitor. There is a balance to competitions and it can be done in a healthy way. But when our driving force is to crush another and not to aim for excellence we have missed it. Competition really does seem to be an issue of the heart. We can judge a performance that was better than another, but depending on how the person competed will determine if they ran well.
I am a person who loves justice but not everybody gets a ribbon. Sometimes somebody is better than you no matter how good you are. So it is, when judging a performance, the higher number wins. I am so glad it doesn't work that way in the spiritual race. Hebrews 1:6b tells us He rewards those who earnestly seek him. Our prize has to do with how much we are seeking Him not how well we perform. Phew, what a relief.
As a competitor our best isn't always gold worthy, but it is prize worthy because of the diligence that was put into it. This is why God is such a perfect judge because we as humans, judge with our eyes. We know what "looks" good but He knows what "is" good. He looks at the heart. Diligence is rewarded, excellence is the fruit.
We are called to run in such a way that we get the prize, (The prize being the One we are running after). One may growl before she skies down a dangerous slope, one may crank music and one may sit quietly. Who am I to say which way is best? This same truth applies to other "competitions" as well. We need to fight the good fight, to run a good race and remember we are running and fighting with others who are diligently seeking Him as well. Some may be running with a broken heart or an injured soul and their performance is just the perseverance to finish. Let's make sure we acknowledge that with our teammates. Some may run past our personal best and appear better than us. Let's guard our hearts from jealousy so we run a good race. And sometimes we will run past another. Let's make sure we encourage the one who is slowing down to not give up.
As for judging between competitions, if at all possible, let's leave it to the experts.
1 Corinthians 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
Hebrews 2:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us
