COMPETITION

The word competition comes from the Latin competito which means striving. While it is possible to strive against, it is also possible to strive together. 

When I strive against you, you are the enemy – and I need to beat you. The more I can take from you, the better, for who seeks to bless the enemy? Actually Christians are called to bless everyone, even the enemy, so clearly a model other than striving against is called for.

Which leads to the second option. Perhaps in our competing, we can strive together – helping each other to be the best that we can be. Even as I slip ahead of you, I can do it in such a way that you recognise that you can rise a little higher… and so, in a while, you slip ahead of me. It is a hope filled exercise, or, as the writer of Proverbs sees it, it is the way that iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17). I don’t want you to be weak – for if you are weak you no longer challenge me. Your strength is my strength, and my strength, yours.

Inherent in this thinking is the recognition that competition in and of itself is neutral. It can be a force for good, for ill, or for many things in between.

And yet, why might competition be dangerous? It is often because of the motivation behind my competing. Rather than finding security from God’s unconditional love for me, I might operate under conditions of worth. I try to beat you not because you are any special threat to me, but because my being “better” than you reassures me that I am worthy. It is a model without grace, and one which will see me lurch from one adrenalin rush to the next, as I try to reassure myself that I am worthy. Feeding that insecurity is hazardous, because I become someone who needs to win. My self-image can be so insecure that nothing but repeated victories are enough to make me feel good about myself. Because of this I need to interrogate myself when I compete. Why am I competing? Do I have a hidden agenda and what is it? Ironically, an agenda that is most hidden to us, is often most obvious to others.

When I move from striving against to striving together, a number of significant changes take place. I realise that while your competing helps me set a pace I might otherwise have backed away from, I’m really competing against myself. There are so many possible versions of me – why should I (or God) settle for a lesser one?

Greg Linville’s book Christmanship: A Theology of Competition and Sport, suggests 6 key benefits that flow from competition:

1) Creativity – as we think how to achieve the goal of our sport, and the different ways in which it can be achieved. If we don’t play the game, we might never face the stretch.

2) Accountability – in team games, I must give account to my team members, and won’t be allowed to excuse inadequate preparation, or a destructive attitude.

3) Performance – which is tangibly observed each time the game gets underway.

4) Sacrifice – progress is often not possible without sacrifice, and the needs of the team trump my own.

5) Character and collaboration – for a game has many stages, and some are discouraging but don’t prevent victory if the team work together resiliently and persistently.

6) Celebration – is self-explanatory, though it should be noted that at times we celebrate a match, which though lost, was nevertheless exhilarating.

One of my favourite competitions in the Bible is the wrestling match between Jacob and God in Genesis 32. An anxious Jacob gets invited to wrestle with a stranger in the wilderness. It seems bizarre – but as we read the passage we realise that much is at stake. It looks as though Jacob will win – but then his fellow wrestler plays dirty and knocks Jacob’s hip out of joint. Almost defeated, Jacob clings to the stranger and insists that unless he blesses him, Jacob will not let him go. The stranger agrees, and blesses him with a new name. No longer will he be Jacob (which means, the schemer) but Israel (which means, one who strives with God and prevails).

Does Jacob (Israel) leave victorious or defeated?

It is hard to say. What we can say is that he has a new name - a name he sometimes lives up to, and sometimes does not (curiously, we still usually think of him by his old name, Jacob, and not his new name, Israel). He also has a new limp. The competition has transformed him. He moves less quickly and less confidently. This is a limp that is a gift, not a curse. A new realisation has dawned upon him - whilst he initially thought the one he wrestled with was merely a man, it was actually God. Clearly that took the struggle to a whole new level of meaning and significance.

There is much to learn from this ancient encounter. It is the reminder that that with which we wrestle, is actually wrestling with us… potentially giving us a better name. Rather than God being absent from the struggle, God is sometimes its author – indeed, we might be wrestling with God - who simply wants to bless us with a new name.

Competition – perhaps it is a word that makes you freeze, as you remember too many embarrassing losses. However, win or lose, competition can leave us the better for taking part, especially if we genuinely compete to bring the best out of each other. Which it is, is largely up to us…