True Competitor: A 10-Day Devotional for Athletes, Coaches & ParentsНамуна

The Scoreboard

WisdomWalks Principle
Winning is becoming more like Jesus.

Known as “The Flying Scotsman,” Eric Liddell ran to victory in the 1924 Paris Olympics. He won a gold medal for Scotland in the 400-meters and set a new world record with his time of 47.6 seconds and won a bronze in the 200-meter race. He was an amazing athlete who was not only a runner, but also a rugby player and a missionary to China.

The classic movie Chariots of Fire shows just how much of an impact Liddell made by living out his convictions. While competing, his goal was to draw his peers to Christ by doing the little things like shaking the hands of other runners before each race. At the time, the runners ran on cinder tracks. Liddell would offer his trowel (a small shovel) to fellow runners who had trouble digging their starting holes. Even though he was known as “The Flying Scotsman,” he could as easily have been called the “The Serving Scotsman.”

When others looked down on other competitors because they were different, he would come alongside those people and encourage them. After competing, he went to China as a missionary where he taught children in school, worked with extremely poor people, and rescued victims of war. Whatever he did, his goal was to become like Jesus.

In the world of sports, winning becomes the ultimate goal; and as a result, competitors adopt a mentality of winning at all costs. Winning consumes us and prevents us from seeing competition correctly. We view the opponent as the enemy who needs to be beaten, destroyed, and annihilated. But I don’t think Jesus would play sports with that concept.

Winning Jesus’ way would be to compete in such a godly way that we elevate the level of everyone’s play so that even the competitor gets better. When Jesus commanded us to love one another, that includes our neighbor—even the opposing team on game day!

There are two possible definitions of competition. One is to defeat an opponent in score, skill, or combat. The other is defined by looking at the Latin word for competition, which is competere. The root word com means “with,” not “against.” This definition means “to walk alongside of, for two or more to work together to bring another along, or to partner.” The second is a vastly different way to play sports. The Christian view of competition could be defined as elevating each other’s involvement to higher levels of participation, skill development, and effectiveness through a sport for the glory of God.

In Chariots of Fire, there is a scene of Eric Liddell talking to his sister, Jenny, about his decision to run now and become a missionary later. He says, “God has made me fast. When I run, I can feel His pleasure, and to run and win is to honor Him.” Jesus has appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

Winning is becoming more like Jesus.

WisdomWalks SPORTS, Ellie Claire (Nashville, TN), pages 143-146.