Heart of a Champion: An Athlete’s Identity in GodSample

### Competing Glory Whether a simple board game, job promotion, or sporting event, at one time or another we’ve all lost to a contender. You might have pictured yourself winning and it seemed so right. You worked hard for it—deserved it. If you are competitive, you may experience discouragement, anger, or envy when you lose. Even though competition is unavoidable, some don’t always enjoy it. Confrontation is not easy for peacemakers. But if you’re involved in sports regularly, you understand battling against other teams or teammates is normal—required actually. But should we avoid competition? Doesn’t it encourage excellence and perfection? It does indeed. As faithful stewards, we should desire to do as much as we possibly can with the gifts and skills God gives us. Excellence in sport is fundamentally good because it imitates God. It involves harnessing the faculties He’s given us to accomplish something useful or beautiful that glorifies Him. But we must be careful to perform well so that it elevates God, not us—and never with the intent of demeaning others. That’s when conflict becomes sinful. Both winning and losing are occasions whereby we might be strengthened, made holy, Christ-like, and more conscious of our sinful jealousy/pride to effectively deploy our God-given talents.