Second place is just the first what?
With all the Mavs-Spurs ruckus this past week, I started to wonder, “What’s this all about?” Since when did people decide to stop, drop, and roll to watch ten tall guys bounce a ball around and see how many times they can get it into a hoop? Seriously, how much is it to score some playoff tickets? Or how much money do people spend to deck out in their favorite team’s gear, round up a lot of drinks and foods, and cheer for guys they’ve never even met for a trophy they’ll never touch and for a title that will belong to somebody else next year anyway? Don’t get me wrong, I definitely watched that last 4th quarter biting my nails and holding my breath, but what is it about sports that gets people all riled up?
Maybe we can strip it down. Maybe it’s just plain ol’ competition that gets people riled up. Who can sing and entertain better? American Idol. Who is smarter and has a better personality? The Apprentice. Who can outwit, outplay, and outmatch? Survivor.
What is this need to win? What is this need to be first place (nevermind second, because they are just the first loser). What exactly are we competing for? These things we win don’t seem to last. I’m sure someone will throw away my dust gathering trophies one day. The bragging rights and sense of pride I achieved when I won those trophies sure haven’t carried up ’til now. And if I scored some money, I’m sure I spent it all within a month anyway. Even if I could bottle all this up and lug it with me at all times, what happens to it all when I die? “Hey, Peter, look at all this dough and shiny medals and plastic trophies I’ve got! Cool, huh! So when are you going to let me in those fine pearly gates?”
Something tells me all the money in the world and winning all the championships there are to win will never get me through the gates of Heaven. Not without a heart devoted to Christ. Not without confessing that without God’s grace, I shouldn’t even be at gates to begin with. Not without acknowledging the fact that the only competition that ever mattered was between God and Satan and that Jesus Christ won that battle over 2000 years ago.
This isn’t so much an anti-sports and -competition rant as a call to stop and think things out. Like how much money we lavish upon entertainment and how, in a roundabout way, the world seems to determine everyone’s self-worth. When I think about these things my mind just simply freezes because it wants to stop everything and start over, but it can’t. But what I know I can do is change my lifestyle to reflect what I do believe in and don’t believe in. No, this doesn’t mean I will ban reality shows or not enroll my kiddos in rec sports. But I probably could manage to spend less money on concerts and start tithing as the Lord has instructed. Maybe I don’t need a new digital camera to take pictures of new memories that will soon become old foreign memories; I could probably make new memories at a homeless shelter and feed a few new friends.
Well. Time for bed. One day this dog will have more bite than bark.
By Matt H., May 24, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
Our society is defiantly competition crazy. I guess its the whole idea of capitalism. “Pull yourself up by your boot straps” People are constantly measuring themselves with the status quo. Its making people have inferiority complexes instead of being happy with who they are. Something like 90% of people surveyed said they were above average intelligence.