Theme: Strive Together

Verse: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 2: 3-4)

Around Labor Day baseball fans in cities with teams still in contention for the playoffs will spend a good amount of their baseball viewing time watching the out-of-town scoreboard. (Note: Those of you on the South Side of Chicago, Denver, or Miami, that would NOT be you this year.) Fans, and sometimes players, will be looking to see what the teams in contention with them are doing. It’s an interesting time of the season and according to my friend, Alfonso, when the MLB season should start. (Alfonso’s lament: “Come on, man! There are too many games.”)

Competition is healthy. It motivates those involved to perform better than they would if left to themselves. It’s how world records are achieved, new inventions are developed, and breakthroughs in medicine are discovered.

There are two types of competition. The first is the most commonly thought of; that is to defeat an opponent in score, skill, or combat. If this is the only way we look at competition, that can lead to an unhealthy attitude towards others. It assumes a finite pie, a “We-Win, You-Lose” view of the world.

The other way is to go to the origin of the word. In Latin, the word “competere” means "to walk along side of, for two or more to work together to bring another along OR to strive together”. Using that view, we elevate each other to higher levels of participation, skill development, and effectiveness. (If that sounds like Small Groups at church or workout partners at the gym, I don’t think that is a coincidence.)

There are some classic movie scenes in which characters play Ping-Pong by themselves (Forrest Gump and The Longest Yard (2005 version) come to mind). The scenes are funny, but they make a good point. Life done without healthy competition can be a very boring existence where nothing ever changes or improves. That is not what God intended for us.

Let’s take the second view of competition (TO STRIVE TOGETHER) and use our skills and talents to elevate others. That may mean we elevate them beyond our achievement level and that is ok. When we come along side others and raise them up, the whole community wins.

Have a GREAT Week!

Adapted from True Competitor by Dan Britton and Jimmy Page