THE VILLAGE ILWIDIOT
Walt Wiltschek
“By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus.” —Phil. 3:14, The Message
The question came up recently in a conversation: “Is it more important to win, or to do your best?”
While we all like to win, the obvious answer would seem to be that doing our best is most important. Winning is sometimes out of our control.
Ideally, we would like to do both, as most athletes at the summer Olympic Games in Paris would attest. The saying isn’t “Go for the bronze,” after all. But if you go all out, leave it all on the field or the mat or the track, and someone else does even better in that moment, all you can do is tip your proverbial cap. And perhaps keep working to get even better. Even Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky doesn’t win every competition.
The long-time Olympic motto is “ Citius, altius, fortius,”Latin for “Faster, higher, stronger.” The words themselves imply being the best, yet modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin expressed a broader view in his ideas that became part of the Olympic creed (yes, Brethren might be non-creedal, but the Olympics aren’t):“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.” Perhaps that’s why “Communiter”—Together—was added a few years ago.
For some athletes in the Games, just being there to compete and represent their country is a huge honor. For those who do win a medal, perhaps among the first from their nation to do so, it’s dazzling. But other athletes make their mark simply by their spirit of competition, compelling story, or unique style—like a glasses-wearing gymnast or refugee-turned-distance runner or a laid-back sport shooter.
And what of us? It feels sometimes that Christians and the church are too obsessed with wins rather than excellence, too focused on victory or being “right” rather than the hard work of discipleship.
Matthew 5:48 is often translated as something like “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NIV), but this feels unattainable. We’ll never be perfect. Only Jesus accomplishes that. A better translation, perhaps, is that we should always be in the act of perfecting—getting better, working through the struggle, keeping our eye on the prize even when we fall short. The Common English Bible renders it instead as becoming “complete.”
On a trip through Springfield earlier this year, I saw a church sign that said, “Learning to Love Our Neighbor Since 1841.” That qualifying participle says it rather well, I thought. We never get there perfectly, not all the time, but by God’s grace we continue to become more loving, more like Christ—individually and together, as a church community. We do our best.
Will that land us on a medal stand? Probably not. But some winning smiles are almost guaranteed.
“By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus.” —Phil. 3:14, The Message
The question came up recently in a conversation: “Is it more important to win, or to do your best?”
While we all like to win, the obvious answer would seem to be that doing our best is most important. Winning is sometimes out of our control.
Ideally, we would like to do both, as most athletes at the summer Olympic Games in Paris would attest. The saying isn’t “Go for the bronze,” after all. But if you go all out, leave it all on the field or the mat or the track, and someone else does even better in that moment, all you can do is tip your proverbial cap. And perhaps keep working to get even better. Even Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky doesn’t win every competition.
The long-time Olympic motto is “ Citius, altius, fortius,”Latin for “Faster, higher, stronger.” The words themselves imply being the best, yet modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin expressed a broader view in his ideas that became part of the Olympic creed (yes, Brethren might be non-creedal, but the Olympics aren’t):“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.” Perhaps that’s why “Communiter”—Together—was added a few years ago.
For some athletes in the Games, just being there to compete and represent their country is a huge honor. For those who do win a medal, perhaps among the first from their nation to do so, it’s dazzling. But other athletes make their mark simply by their spirit of competition, compelling story, or unique style—like a glasses-wearing gymnast or refugee-turned-distance runner or a laid-back sport shooter.
And what of us? It feels sometimes that Christians and the church are too obsessed with wins rather than excellence, too focused on victory or being “right” rather than the hard work of discipleship.
Matthew 5:48 is often translated as something like “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NIV), but this feels unattainable. We’ll never be perfect. Only Jesus accomplishes that. A better translation, perhaps, is that we should always be in the act of perfecting—getting better, working through the struggle, keeping our eye on the prize even when we fall short. The Common English Bible renders it instead as becoming “complete.”
On a trip through Springfield earlier this year, I saw a church sign that said, “Learning to Love Our Neighbor Since 1841.” That qualifying participle says it rather well, I thought. We never get there perfectly, not all the time, but by God’s grace we continue to become more loving, more like Christ—individually and together, as a church community. We do our best.
Will that land us on a medal stand? Probably not. But some winning smiles are almost guaranteed.
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