c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Across the countries of the world, no sport is more competitive than soccer. We’ve all heard the stories of entire stadiums erupting in violence. Many world-class arenas are now ringed in wire to keep irate fans from storming the field and attacking officials or members of the opposing team. Referees have been physically threatened for making a “wrong” call.

Even in small-town America, soccer inflames competitive passions that amaze us. Parents and coaches have had to be physically restrained at times. Little children in shin guards have listened in shock at screaming tirades by their elders whom they thought they were supposed to look up to.

As I grew up a “missionary kid” in a small African village, we played soccer, too _ but with a much different tone. We fully enjoyed the game in a gentle, noncompetitive way.

First of all, everyone got to play. Everyone was free to jump in whenever the game found its way to you.

If in the midst of our scuffling, someone got hurt, stubbing a toe or twisting an ankle, the game stopped immediately. As the injured child cried, we too would sit in the dust with them, hold them close, and cry. Nobody was glad that an “opponent” would have to leave the game. These weren’t our opponents; they were our beloved friends.

Years later and far away from my village, I learned the name of that feeling that grabbed our hearts when another suffered. It was “compassion.” This feeling swirled in the dust of our games, hung in the air of our classrooms, embodied our gifts to one another, and shaped our hearts.

The English word compassion is actually very similar to competition _ but miles apart in meaning. In the heart of my village, there was room for only one. Our Western society is driven primarily by a sense of competition. We are bent on out-performing, out-achieving, and out-playing the other person. Doing otherwise is not normal.

In the Bible, Jesus shared all kinds of upside-down viewpoints. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). He wanted a world where the first are last and the last are first, a place where the weak are strong and the strong are weak. With Jesus, the little are big and the big are little. The humble are lifted up and the proud are brought low. The poor are rich and the rich are poor.

Our world is but a brief and passing moment in time. If the flow of our present society is to hurt each other, to beat each other, to vanquish each other, what’s the solution? Do we just hurt each other as little as possible?

No, this is not enough, either for us or our children. We have to be compassionate just as our God is compassionate. This means being courageously and radically different in the midst of society. It means going against the win-at-any-cost mentality.

Let me be clear: I am not for mediocrity. God deserves excellence. It just doesn’t need the conquest of anyone. Competition has its place in society, and even in sports. But its most noble, and perhaps only proper, role is to serve as a motivation for excellence.

Competition turns corrosive when it includes the humiliation of one’s rivals, who are also just trying to achieve their best performance. The very best athletes understand this distinction deep in their souls and they often demonstrate it in post-game interviews. They don’t gloat or denigrate their opponents. They usually talk about being satisfied with their own performance, or disappointed that they didn’t do as well as they had hoped and trained for.

They don’t blame the officiating, make excuses, or fault their teammates. High-level competition has served primarily to enable them to compete against themselves, to measure their personal best.

There is victory beyond the victory on the scoreboard. We can all compete, but don’t make it an end in itself. Realize it is a journey. Competition should be our servant, a mere tool to drive us toward excellence.

MO/JL END RNS

(Wess Stafford is the president of Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy organization serving more than 700,000 children in 20 countries. He is also the author of “Too Small to Ignore: Why Children Are the Next Big Thing.”)Editors: To obtain a photo of Wess Stafford, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.