“We live in a time in history in which competition is seen as something that needs to be eliminated.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 55). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Is competition outdated, is it wrong?  Good question

Erwin says, “Our schools are not only eliminating the designation of winners and losers, but they have actually gone as far as to eliminate scoring altogether so no one knows who is ahead and who is behind.

“We are far more comfortable with the language of cooperation and collaboration than we are with the language of competition. Our negative view of competition is often put on hold when we watch such events as the Olympics, the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the NBA Finals. But as a whole, we have adopted a framework that suggests that competition is archaic and antiquated and must be eliminated from the human story. Yet without competition, we lack the necessary context to push ourselves beyond our own capacities.”

In a conversation with a young man on the subject of competition as a Christian, Erwin said, “When you are the best, there is no one to compare yourself to. So rather than comparing yourself to others, why don’t you compete against you, who you are today. That way when you are the best, you’re still competing against the same person: who you were yesterday.”

Erwin then said, “Roger Bannister was the first person to break the four-minute mile. He didn’t have to break the four-minute mile to be the best in comparison to others. In fact, no one in the world ever expected him to break the four-minute mile. That barrier was perceived as impossible to cross. If he had measured what it meant to be best against others, he never would have accomplished the ‘impossible.’

“When you’re the best, you don’t compare yourself against others; you compare yourself against the impossible. After Bannister broke the four-minute mile, it changed the standard for every athlete that followed him. He changed the meaning of what it meant to be the best, and, ironically, his accomplishment made everyone in his field better. Today, breaking a four-minute mile is routinely done by world-class athletes.”

Let’s do what God has created us to do and that is to live life with the intent to bring Him glory and let Him make a difference through us in other’s lives.  He has not called us to be lazy but to bring Him glory.  Would you ask Him to live out His fullness through your life?  Would you?

Yes, yes!