It’s the Race that Counts

Okay . . . I’m old enough to accept that I’m not going to come out on top.  I’m not going to win the race.  It’s just not in the cards.  The best I’m going to do is to get a “participant” trophy.  I can handle that at my age.  It is just not going to happen.  The odds were just too great.  Something like a zillion to one.  In the end I think that is what everyone should get—a “participant” trophy.  After all . . . we finished the race and that was the goal all along.

In the end, isn’t that what we all deserve?  Recognition for a race well ran?  That we finished.

 

My grandchildren have reached the age when they are now competing in competitive sports.  They are no longer playing sports for the sake of playing, enjoyment, and exercise.  Nope.  They have entered the realm of “winners and losers”, bragging rights, and all the marbles.  There is more seriousness to the sports they engage in.  A sharper edge.  It is the weeding out of “winners and losers” . . . a pecking order . . . a caste system of sorts.  It has taken the fun out of sports.

 

As my children grew up, I had various roles in their sporting adventures.  In their younger years I encouraged them to try out sports.  I was a cheerleader for their sporting endeavors.  I also coached them.  I coached soccer, basketball, track, and cross country.  When I first started coaching it was about teaching the skills and enjoyment of playing the sport.  The competition wasn’t important.  It was for the pure joy of the sport.  But somewhere along the way I slid into the “dark side” . . . the competitive side.  It was all downhill after that.  I lost track of the exhilaration of sports for the sake of sports.  Lost track of my kids as individuals only to see them as cogs in the competition machine.

 

Sports lost their joy.  For that . . . I apologize to my children and all the kids who endured my slide into the “dark side”.  If I killed the joy of sports for anyone . . . I apologize.  Competition is a sneaky, slippery slope to navigate.

 

I know.

 

Recently at my granddaughter’s lacrosse game, I caught myself with a toe in the “dark side” . . . I was shining about the officiating or lack thereof.  In a close game against an aggressive team the granddaughter’s team was losing.  Now it couldn’t be that the more aggressive team was more experienced and skilled than the granddaughter’s team—they obviously had played the sport longer.  No, the competitive spark in me turned towards the most obvious problem for any spectator—the referees.  Thankfully the whining was contained within the confines of my granddaughter’s mother—my daughter.  It probably triggered all sorts of PTSD flashbacks from the days when I coached her or sat in the stands at her games.  Poor kid.  Besides, it was ridiculous on my part, the referees were doing their best as middle school kids made to volunteer to officiate.  Kids!  Shame on me!  Thankfully I recognized the awakening of the monster within me.  Unfortunately, the daughter caught the brunt of my whining.

 

I apologized.  Then I spent a lot of time thinking about it.  I concluded that it is the fought of competition . . . the need to have “winners and losers” . . . the need to determine the “best” . . . to have a pecking order . . . a caste system.  We live in a society of ranking.  A need to determine the “top to bottom” . . . to declare the “best”.  Competition has ruined life.

 

We live in a competitive world.  It is not just sports—it is everything.  Everything is a competition.  Think about it.  Education is competitive—class ranks, scholarship, valedictorian, dean’s list, grades.  Business is competitive.  Politics is competitive.  War is competitive.  Dog shows.  Music.  Art.  Religion.  Shoot!  We even compete to see who has the best yard.  We rank everything . . . declare things the best . . . have our “top twenty, forty, hundred” lists.  We live in a competitive world.

 

I think competition is destroying life.  That competition has taken the “joy” out of life.  Everything is a competition.  It has worn me out!  It has saddened me as I’ve watched it take the “joy” away from so many.  It has all come about winning.  Only one can win—the rest, well they are “losers”.  No one wants to be a “loser”.

 

May its not competition that’s the problem.  May it is the need to have “winners and losers”.  Instead of having “winners and losers” we should embrace the participation award.  After all, everyone competed and should be acknowledged for doing their best . . . for showing up.  The problem with that is that we have glorified “winning” and declared “losing” as bad.  I’ve seen it with my children.  I have seen it with my grandchildren.  Someone is always keeping score . . . declaring “winners and losers”.  Go to any pee wee sporting event in which the score is not being kept and any kids in the game will be able to tell you . . . they know the score . . . they know whether they have won or lost.  It is too ingrained in the psyche of human nature . . . in society.

 

How terrible!  This was never the intention of the Creator.  I think it was the intention of the Holy for a unified effort towards everyone finishing the race together.  Not individual achievement, but the totality of creation.  It wasn’t about who got there first, but that everyone got there.  That is what I believe the Creator intended but we have even bastardized that to the point where we preach “us” against “them” as God’s favorites.  No matter what anyone says, the Holy plays no favorites.  All of creation belongs to the Creator—the call is to be “one”.

 

With that in mind, I probably need to work on keeping the competitive monster locked away.  Instead, I need to focus on enjoying the race . . . enjoying the people . . . enjoy watching how all the pieces fit and work together . . . striving to be the best that they can be.  Striving to cheer everyone across the finish line.  It is a long race, this thing we call life, and it sure helps having someone cheering you along.

 

As I said, I’m not going to go out on top when the end comes.  Nope, I will be lucky if I am 11,397,521,198^th.  I’ll take that participation trophy with pride as an acknowledgement that I made it, and someone noticed my effort.  It’s not whether I win or lose, it’s how I run the race.  How we all run the race.  That’s what matters.  May we all run to our greatest potential.  That is what makes the Creator smile . . . not winning . . . not losing . . . participating.

 

I Will Survive

 

Cue up the music.

Though Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem, I Will Survive seems to tell the straightforward story of a women unwilling to put up with a cheating partner, it is more.  It is more than a simple story of surviving cheating, it carries the universal themes of strength, pride, independence, and overcoming self-doubt.  It has been embraced by many groups and individuals as a anthem of glaring hope . . . of survival.  It has become my theme song as I continue to journey through this circus call life.

 

Especially after the latest eclipse of the sun.  One esteemed politician from Georgia proclaimed it and recent earthquakes on the east coast to be a message from God . . . shape up or else.  An apocalyptic message in the congresswoman’s estimation.  And . . . I survived.

 

I survived another one.  Now I don’t want to brag, but since my birth in 1958 I have now survived approximately 76 end of the world predictions and 22 “second coming” scenarios.  I have taken some of the best hits from some of the best naysayers over the years: Hal Lindsay (The Late Great Planet Earth), Billy Graham (Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), Edgar Cayce (the “Sleeping Prophet”), Jim Jones (the Kool Aid” idiot), Pat Robertson (The End of the Age),  Charles Manson, Jerry Falwell (End Time Politics), Tim LaHaye (Left Behind), Jeane Dixon, and a whole slew of religious zealots over the generations and self-proclaimed prophets.  Throw in there the infamous Y2K into the mix. 

 

I have somehow missed out on the zombie invasions.  Missed out any form of nuclear annihilation.  Side stepped all the natural calamities and disasters.  Came through the pandemic in one piece.  Dodged all the asteroid showers and space junk falling to earth.  So far have avoided any super volcanic explosion of Yellowstone.  Still have Artificial Intelligence under control . . . no invasion of robots.  You name it and I have so far steered clear of being kaput. 

 

Oh, there have been moments when I had my doubt.  Take for example the Rapture.  As a pastor, before retiring, there had been times when I got to church and waited for the congregation to arrive.  There were Sundays when few showed up to worship and I began to worry . . . worry where everyone was at.  Worry that maybe I missed the signs that the “end” had come . . . that I got left behind.  But I survived.  Usually, their reason for the dismal attendance was something better was on the television.  Think about it . . . would you rather listen to me or some flashy, millionaire evangelist?  Either way . . . I survived.

 

But I have my moments, especially in the world climate that all of us are existing in right now . . . these are crazy times.  It is easy to slip into paranoia.  Easy to interpret what is going on as “signs of the end”.  Of course, the Bible tells us that there will be “signs” that the end is near before it is all said and done.  It also said that every generation will have such “signs”.  That is enough to hang a hat on and jump into the panic that the “end is near”.

 

For example, take our nation’s politics right now.  Have you ever seen or experienced a bigger circus?  As I stated earlier, we have a congresswoman from Georgia telling us that God is sending us messages through earthquakes and an eclipse of the sun.  She said we Americans need to listen . . . or else.  The “great orange one” has equated himself as Jesus.  Makes me wonder if he might be that anti-Christ I read all about in the Bible.  Signs, signs, everywhere signs.  Ya see . . . it is easy to slip into this convoluted thinking and see the “end” coming all around you.  I’ll admit it . . . I have been guilty of such thinking from time to time.

 

But . . . I have survived.  It ain’t bragging.  It’s a fact.

 

And so have you.

 

The sun came up this morning.  The birds were singing.  People went to work and school.  People went shopping.  They were enjoying one another.  Life continued to roll.  We are all here despite the anxiety we are all feeling.  We have survived.

 

This is not the Creator’s show set on a continuous loop.  No.  This is creation set in motion and it is our choice on how it plays out.  We can jump onto the craziness of the “end is coming” band wagon or we can choose to live our lives as we have been challenged to do . . . to love and bring the family together.  The choice is ours.

 

I appreciate Miss Gaynor’s words in her song, I Will Survive, especially the chorus:

 

No, not I, I will survive

Long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive

I've got my life to live

And all my love to give and

I will survive

I, I, I will survive

 

It’s my mantra . . . my theme song.  You see, I have survived (once again)!  So have you.  Yea, cue up the music . . . we have survived.  Go ahead, brag!