The flame has been extinguished. The medals have all been awarded, for the most part (apparently gymnastics is getting a bit gymnasty about the bronze medal). The games of the XXXIII Olympiad have concluded. We may all return to our regularly scheduled routines. We no longer need to sneak a peek at our phones to see how our favorite American athletes are faring. Or, perhaps you wanted to watch the events in their entirety as you had time requiring you to make the extra effort to avoid spoilers during the day. Or, maybe you had little interest in devoting the time to actually watch the events, but your inner American wanted to make sure we were winning, so you regularly, perhaps obsessively, checked the medal count.
If you haven’t heard, we did win… sort of. If the winner is determined by the total number of Olympic medals earned, the United States won by a large margin. American athletes earned 126 total medals; 42 bronze, 44 silver, and 40 gold. If the winner is determined by gold, however, there was a tie for first place. We, the United States of America, have to share the “W” with the People’s Republic of China. It adds a bit of bitter to the sweetness of victory.
Competition and the drive to win are core features of the American experience.
Competition and the drive to win are core features of the American experience. Whether or not you closely followed the Olympics or participated in athletics in your life, you have undoubtedly participated in some form of competition and felt the drive and/or pressure to win. Competition isn’t something that is limited to what takes place on the field, in the pool, or around the track. It has made it’s way into most arenas of life. We compete in the classroom, comparing GPA’s, test scores, and class rank. We compete in the political arena, positioning ourselves with one side and against another, avoiding even the appearance of alignment with perceived opponents. The drive to compete and win has even made its way into the local church, with churches competing for people, resources, and public influence.
While there’s nothing wrong with a little competition, we’ve clearly got a problem. In the three examples provided above, academics, politics, and the church, our competition often negatively influences or completely eliminates friendly connections. In all three instances, healthy levels of cooperation and coordination are absolutely necessary. Is not the goal of academia, the government, and the church to care for the needs of people and to create opportunities for as many as possible to grow, succeed, and become all God created them to be? Our infatuation with competition often does more to eliminate opportunities and has created a great many no-win situations.
The undeniable truth is that our infatuation with competition often causes us to miss the mark in our relationships with one another in a great many arenas of life.
In Matthew 20, Jesus turned the competitive ways of this world on their head. First, He notes that the salvation of God is not an award to be earned, but a gift that is given by grace and received in humility. In Matthew 20:16, Jesus famously said, “The first will be last, and the last will be first.” Jesus isn’t reversing the order of importance. Rather, He is revealing our equal standing before a holy God. Jesus alone earned the victory; we all get to enjoy the fruits of His labor by grace through faith. But, Jesus doesn’t stop there. In Matthew 20:25-28, Jesus reveals that greatness doesn’t come through the world’s competitive drive, but through compassionate service in keeping with His example.
We love to compete. We love to win. But the undeniable truth is that our infatuation with competition often causes us to miss the mark in our relationships with one another in a great many arenas of life. We need to humble ourselves, eliminate much of the competition from our friendliness, and learn to sacrificially serve one another for the good of the world and the glory of God. In the end, when we all give our best and become all God intended, everybody wins.
