True Competitor: 7 Days of Spiritual Gritনমুনা

MARK OF EXCELLENCE

True Competitor Principle

Leave a God mark, not a me mark.

After a hard workout session at a summer sports camp, one of the coaches challenged the campers to compete with excellence because the kids were dragging through their second practice of the day. “Practice makes permanence,” he told them. “Perfect practice makes perfect.”

“Practice makes perfect” is the way I’ve always heard this saying. But if you’re practicing something wrong, no matter how many times you do it, you’re just making your mistakes permanent, not perfect. The key is doing it right by doing it with excellence. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” The “whatever” part is hard because it means pursuing excellence in all we do—including practicing, lifting weights, training, eating, studying, and worshiping. God deserves our best, not our leftovers.

Excellence starts with the heart. Abraham Lincoln said it best:

I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if, at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

When you compete, what kind of mark do you want to leave? Are you pursuing excellence—or perfection? Edwin Bliss once said, “The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.” If we want excellence as a competitor, we need to be athletes and coaches of excellence who are committed to pursuing excellence over the long haul. To achieve this, we must answer three questions:

1. Whom do you serve? If your answer is Jesus Christ, then also ask yourself, Does He delight in my playing? We say, “Without Christ, we can do nothing,” but we often do sports and life as if we can do something without Christ. Is it something or nothing? We need to be on our guard against misplaced confidence.
2. How’s your work? As an athlete, your work is your competition. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Doing the Lord’s work with excellence and a faithful heart is the goal. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 HCSB). Are you an approved or an ashamed competitor? To stand approved, we need to serve with standards. We should be compelled to pursue excellence in all training, practicing, and playing. But there’s always an element of sacrifice involved. In his book A Call to Excellence, Gary Inrig told the story of how, at age fourteen, Michelangelo began training with Bertoldo de Giovanni, one of the greatest sculptors of his time. It was already obvious that this student was enormously gifted, and Bertoldo was wise enough to realize that gifted people are often tempted to do the minimum rather than to grow. One day, when Michelangelo was working on a sculpture far easier than he was capable of, Bertoldo grabbed a hammer, stomped across the room, and smashed the work into thousands of pieces, shouting this unforgettable message: “Talent is cheap; dedication is costly!”John Wooden said, “There is no substitute for hard work. Most people tend to look for shortcuts or at least for the easiest way to complete any given task. If we only put out a minimum effort, we might get by in some situations, but in the long run, we won’t fully develop the talents that lie within us.” How is your competition? Is it excellent?
3. What’s your foundation? If your answer is the Word of God, then are you using the Word well? As Christians, we need to have a passion for the truth and to handle the truth with accuracy. Titus 2:7 says, “Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching” (HCSB). As we share with others, our examples need to be grounded in the Word of God—nothing more, nothing less.

Every time we serve and lead, we leave an imprint. But will it be a me mark or a God mark? When we’re committed to excellence, we naturally desire to leave the kind of mark on others that will have an eternal impact. Being excellent requires the total release of our talents, gifts, and abilities to the calling of becoming more like Christ. We cannot hold back or keep anything for our own glory!

A quote attributed to Martin Luther puts it well.

The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes but by making good shoes because God is interested in good craftsmanship.

Apply the same philosophy to the competitor, and it might sound like this: “The Christian athlete, coach, or parent who competes is doing the will of God as much as the missionary who serves overseas—not because he or she gives God credit after winning a game but because God loves sportsmanship and a sport played with excellence.”

What about you? Do you pursue excellence while making a God mark? What kind of imprint are you leaving?

Lord, You are excellent. Show me how I can compete in such a way that people see excellence in all I do. I want them to talk about the power of Jesus, not my athletic accomplishments. I desire for the mark of Jesus to be all that is left. Amen.