Tournament season is something that stretches all of us, on some level or another. We've worked all season on these speeches, and spent hours at the computer working on our debate cases. And we are so excited to compete, and see the hard work pay off.
And when it doesn't go as planned, it can hurt. We may feel like our time has been wasted when we see others advancing in the out rounds for debate, while our own boxes remain comfortably nestled in the student hangout area. It can sting to watch your speech event being announced during awards, while you are sit in the back of the auditorium, instead of walking across the stage.
"Humility." "Glorifying God." "Peace." "Confidence." We throw these words around so much at tournaments. And they are beautiful... but are they our focus? Or have they simply become a legal safeguard, to make sure we at least have Christian values on our minds, if not in our hearts?
What is your greatest good at a tournament? What do is your goal going into it? Oftentimes, when people are asked this, they'll smile and say: "Well, I'm just here to glorify God!" And that is wonderful... but is that your greatest good? Is that your heart's longing, or has that become a cover-up for wanting your own gain?
It is not wrong to want to advance at tournaments. I certainly have that longing as well. But what does it mean, if that is all we walk away with? Have we won anything, if our confidence is only in those awards?
I think Paul put it best in Philippians 3:
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus,and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal,persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
-Philippians 3:3-11
I want that to be my greatest good; I want to come closer to God this tournament and see His hand at work in the hearts of those around me, and in my own life, and if I don't, it doesn't matter how well I do, because I have gained nothing!! All I have is a little plastic round thing on a ribbon, presented by a league that seeks to equip students for so much more. God is giving us the tools to be world changers. But for what are we going to change the world, if we're not rooted in Him in the here and now? I have nothing, if I have not found more of Him.
Why? Because He is the Beloved. He is not a faraway, eternal Being who cares nothing about us, frowns whenever we do something wrong, likes to make us miserable, or doesn't understand us. He cherishes our hearts so deeply that He would die to save them. His arms hold the entire universe, yet he is holding you, as an individual, against His heart, ravished by one glance of Your eyes. He listens when you cry out. He answers you when you call. When you seek Him, He will be found. He loves us.
That love is my greatest good. I want it to be the longing of my heart. If I have not fallen more deeply in love with Him, I have nothing to boast in.
I am not my own; I am His, and He is mine. We lack for nothing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Worship Song:
"Boasting",
Lecrae
Lecrae
(slower, thought-provoking rap)
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