I coached my first lacrosse team way back in 1991. Since then, I have seen lots of wins and losses. And I have also seen trends – some of which are encouraging and some of which trouble me. One troubling trend involves kids wanting to opt out of the post-season playoffs since they don’t believe they will win the title. Even among seniors, who in some cases have spent eight or more years of their young lives learning their sport, they would rather end their high school careers than continue their season into games they feel they have little chance of winning.
I am not the only coach to have noticed this. I have discussed it with several other coaches here in SoCal who have the same problem. It is increasingly difficult to motivate kids to want to compete when they realize they probably won’t win it all. This is sad. But worse, this trend is not limited to high school lacrosse players.
A small church sometimes doesn’t want to bother investing in a children’s ministry because it cannot compete with the programs at the mega church down the street. A couple believes that their marriage will never be great, so they don’t bother trying to make it good. Someone has a chronic health concern and since they will never run a marathon, they completely let themselves go. I could you give you a hundred instances of this “if I can’t be the best, its not worth trying at all” attitude.
And what an attitude it is. It is a soul destroying, character defiling, heart breaking condition that demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the things that truly matter on this side of heaven.
I coach with the wisdom of God’s word in my back pocket and on my lips – my athletes regularly hear “ancient Israelite proverbs.” One that I have used to counter this preference for quitting instead of competing comes from Ecclesiastes 9:4:
“Where there is life there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”
This proverb comes in a very sobering context – death comes to all of us sooner or later. But rather than leading us to some stoic resignation, this proverb calls us to the audacity of hope and to the privilege of striving!
Notice the comparative juxtaposition of the live dog and dead lion – one is better than the other. Ordinarily, the lion is better than the dog. The lion in the ancient Israelite mind was noble and dangerous; the dog was unclean and ignoble. But it would be preferably to be a living dog who has hope than to be done with it all as a lion. Fascinating.
Whoever you are, and however barely you are hanging on to your marriage, your career, your family, your church… never quit! Hope and live – proactively strive! Even if you have to win a play-in game to compete against the top seed in a tough bracket, tie on those cleats and take the field. You are alive and hope invites effort.
You and I are simply called to daily do our best, working and competing as if for the Lord himself (Colossians 3:23). There is joy and purpose enough in that. We can leave the awarding of trophies and titles to Him.
Your Pastor,
Bob Bjerkaas
N.B. The image is a cast bronze figurine from the 8th=9th century B.C. Neo-Assyria. This image is in the public domain and is made accessible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 54.117.23.