Running the Race

Would you consider yourself a competitive person?  And if so, would that be considered a positive or negative quality?  Now I just may be the clumsiest girl allowed to sit with all of my very athletic friends in high school (true story) but I was competitive nonetheless.  Academics, that was my “sport” of choice.  I may not have the ability to run cross country and win a medal, despite my two year pretty humiliating attempt at such a goal, but if there are academic awards to be handed out I will try my best to get them.  I am not sure why a colored cardstock piece of paper was so important to me growing up but it was.  In fact, it didn’t matter what that piece of paper said- be it “student of the month”, “perfect attendance”, or something crazy like “most socially awkward”- if there was an award for it, I wanted it.  As a senior in high school I was looking through the last school newspaper edition of the year and got so excited to see that in the midst of the 500+ students in our class, I had been voted for something!  And there it was- “most unique”… Excited soon turned to concern, was “unique” just a nice word for weird?  Whatever it was, I beat out 499 other students to receive that title and I was going to wear it proud!

Last night I had the wonderful privilege of speaking to our youth group here in Stockton, CA to finish out our Surrender series.  One of the main points was about competition.  While it has the ability to challenge us to press harder than we would have before there is also a very negative side to being at competition with others- when it is taken out of its place in something such as sports and played out in the day to day social realm.  The bible tells us to have compassion for people and not be in constant competition with people.  The more I thought about that this morning the more I realized how much it has become an epidemic especially amongst the female population.  If someone has a smaller waist line than us we aren’t happy for them, deep down we hope they go into a binge and gain 50 pounds in one night.  If someone has a better wardrobe than us, we tell ourselves we have better things to spend our money on as if having a nice pair of jeans was below us.  Come on girls, deep down you know you have struggled with another girls physical, emotional, financial, or spiritual success in some way or have gained some joy out of the failure of someone else.  The truth is that acknowledging another girl’s success, does not devalue your own.  And likewise, another person’s failure does not make you a better person.  Honestly, neither have any reflection on you whatsoever…  The only reflection of you, is your reaction to such an incident.

I recently ran across a video (http://vimeo.com/43490354) of a runner in second place that had the chance to win her race when the girl in first collapsed.  Then the most remarkable thing happened.  The girl in second got a standing ovation!!! Why? Well it wasn’t because she stepped over the other girl, rejoicing in her shortcoming, and finished.  Rather she stooped down, picked the girl up, and walked her to the finish line making sure that she still crossed in second.  Yes it was a competition, but this girl understood that we should never revel in someone else’s defeat, and she showed what Jesus taught us to show- COMPASSION!  These are the girls we should look up to ladies!  Thank you Meghan Vogel for being an example of what it means to lend a helping hand when so many would have run on ahead.  Some would have cheered for her coming in first, but all cheered for her helping someone else come in first!!!

Ephesians 4:32

And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted

(compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another

[readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.   AMP