We Win
Last night, I watched my team, the Indianapolis Colts, win the Super Bowl. It was the first time that “my team” had ever won the NFL’s prized award. And I must admit, it felt good. My friends who came over to vote for the “Losers” had to hang their heads in shame. All their taunting had to be put away when “my team” showed them up. Oh, I love to be on the winning side.
I wonder how much this impacts our faith. So often we talk about helping people to believe in Jesus. We have great evangelism plans to convince those who don’t yet believe of their need for the truth. We have all kinds of 4 step or 5 step or 7 step ways to convey the information that will change their minds. But I wonder…do we love them?
Honestly now…do we love the people around us and want them to have the best possible lives, or…I am afraid to really say it…do we just want to be right? Do we just want to be on the winning side? After all, if we are honest, we love to win…all of us. We are raised in a culture where we are born and bred to win. Our entire system of thought raps around working to outdo the competition around us. This is not a slam on capitalism. It is a question of whether or not the motivation behind it has bled into our concern for God’s world.
I would like to hear what you think. Is our motivation to be right…to win…to let everyone know we are on the winning team? Or is our motivation to share God’s grace, to bring a better life for all, and to make eternity real? If so, do we need to change the words we use and the actions we take in regards to those around us?
I love being on the winning side. And yes, I will act as if I had everything to do with the Colts winning the big game. And yes, if you are a Bears fan, I understand the great sorrow you must feel after such an embarrassment (can you hear my joy). I just want to know if we can keep our sports and our faith separate. Can we be all Jesus called us to be without making it a competition of who is right and who is wrong and what kind of trophies go to each? Sometimes I wonder…
- Written by Ed Palpant
February 5th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I think that God always gives us another change to “win”. When we make bad choices, he forgives us. He encourages us to become a better Christian each and every day. So, like professional football players, we are always in “training” to be the best and to share our love of our Lord through our daily actions. So, while the Bears lost their game last night, they will have another chance next year. Nothing stays the same ~ we should always strive to be better Christians. So, like professional football, there is always another chance to “win” with God.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I think that’s a powerful observation that many evangelists and apologists are motivated by the competitive spirit. I think that the problem may be in convicting and convincing them of that fact. In other words, I think that many of these people genuinely love others to the best of their ability and want to help people into the Kingdom. But they are taught a combative, argumentative model and probably themselves see salvation as more of an event than a lifestyle. And I believe in many circumstances, they see the Gospel itself as a ticket to Heaven rather than an opportunity to live a life which is awesome because it pleases God. We don’t preach the Gospel as an opportunity, but that’s what it is.
We need to start embracing new ideas and spreading them - helping people see the opportunity of Christianity and also to discover new methods of sharing of the Gospel.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:12 am
I’ve never heard of anyone coming to any sort of long lasting, loving faith in God and/or Jesus solely through a rational argument. That certainly wasn’t the case for me. So, being “right” over another person seems to have little (if any) lasting value. Walking with God, allowing Him access to all the scary, ugly, embarrassing parts of our lives, is far too difficult to handle if we are not absolutely completely convinced that the reason He wants to know us and us to know Him is because He loves us more than we can imagine. So, while I agree wholeheartedly that “evangelism” for the purpose of getting more notches on your “Saved by Me” cover of your bible is an affront to what I believe Jesus had in mind, I wonder if there is a place where some competitive spirit is beneficial, or at least acceptable, in the realm of faith. It seems to me that unless every bit of competitive spirit is wildly sinful, there must be some way it can be focused and used to glorify God.
When I see a person taking steps toward God, I get so thrilled I can hardly stand it. I get jazzed because I know that their lives will be permanently changed for the better. I get exhilarated because I know that the God that I am getting to know and love is dancing in the streets of heaven with joy because one of His children has started toward home. But, to be completely honest (maybe I should post this anonymously), I also get excited because my enemy, God’s enemy, has lost ground. Every time any of us shows God’s love, God is glorified and His/my enemy gets salt rubbed in his wounds. And I want that. The longer I walk with God, I spend less time and energy thinking about his enemy…but my desire to see him snuffed out of existence runs deeper and deeper. I hate that he comes to steal and destroy. I hate that he causes pain, suffering and fear. I hate that his idea of glee is when a child of God gets so deceived he thinks God could never love him, and so he closes his heart to the Sacred Romance of God and walks away.
My hope is that I don’t want to be right to prove other people wrong. If I want to prove that I can pass a test, I’ll go back to school. My hope is that, in some areas of knowing God, I’ll be more right than God’s enemy. I want him to be wrong. Whether he’s an entity or idea…I want him to lose.
Maybe we don’t need to keep our sports and faith separate. Maybe we just need to realign who is on which team.
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Competition. It drives capitalism, sports and, some would argue, religion. It is a fascinating yet disturbing thing to me that historically (or maybe hysterically?)more people have been killed in God’s name than all diseases combined. From the Crusades to the Jihad and countless other Holy wars, men have been in a never ending battle with their brothers to decide who has the “right” picture of God. Ironically, the only ones who know are the vanquished, since you have to die to find out. So if the losers know, and the winners are left perpetually unsure, what is the point of all this? Oh, yeah, competition. We do like to win.