Competition

Men like to recreate and compete. Those are a couple of the reasons why I started this type of Men's Group. I think disc golf will be a great, healthy way to compete; between shots there is ample time for fellowship and it hopefully will keep us from competing in the wrong places. Humans were designed to compete for survival but now, at least in America, the basics to survival are all but a given. We're still competitive but the competition can be missplaced. We shouldn't be competing through the activities of our children or to outspend our neighbors.

The Bible is largely silent on the topic of competition as we consider it in modern-day America. Perhaps competition was simply known as "life" back then. But, consider Jesus: The basic tenant he taught was to love others as yourself. Kind of hard to want to beat someone down if you love and live like that, huh? (Mark 12:31, "The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." ; Leviticus 19:18 "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Lord.")

Do we love others as we love ourselves? Some of us may try, but I think most of us fall short. That's part of what Jesus died for, though, so I don't think it will stop us from getting into Heaven. We can try to do better, and I think part of that is placing the competition in our lives in the right places. Since we've largely removed the day-to-day struggle to survive, I think God has put us, right now, right here, in a great position to use our competitive desires to help others. Why not see how well you can help others? But compete against doing nothing, not against others who are also helping.

But that brings us to pride. Taking away the competition to survive, nearly all competition now involves pride. Winning stokes our self-view, we hold up our chins and puff out our chests. If I'm competing for a promotion do I try to help or harm my rival's chances? Do I do the best I can and leave it at that, or do I also do the best I can to make the competition look bad? My pride makes me want to win. Win now, win later, win always.

The American economy and our system of democracy are competitions (if not competitions, what are presidential campaigns?). But what if instead of competing for the presidency, everyone worked together to honestly find the best person for the job? You are right, it will never happen that way, but what kind of president would we get? If we made the competition not against each other but with each other and against mediocrity, would that be more like loving each other?

Competition is important to America and Americans. If we tried to live without it, I think we'd all be lost, not sure how to move on. I'm certianly culpable. I like to compete. But I'm going to try to compete in a healthy way. I think disc golf is so irrelevant to life that it is a good place to set free our competitive spirits, as long as we can truly keep pride out of the mix. While we're at it, let's help that rival at work get the promotion. That's truly loving your neighbor.