Jokes abound about what it means to come in second. One tells of
two hikers trying to outrun a bear. How fast does the faster one have to go to
outrun the bear? Only a little faster than the other guy. Another legend has a
two-car race being run between the United States and the old Soviet Union. The
newspapers in Moscow proclaimed the day after the race the Soviet car had come
in second and the American car had come in next to last. No further details were
given.
Being able to finish at all in some cases is a miracle in itself.
The recent US Open held in Pinehurst was a runaway by the winner. The rest of
the story revolved around Eric Compton who came in tied for second on the power
of his heart transplant, not his first but his second! Sometimes the victory is
just in being able to be there.
For some people winning is everything. To come in second is to
lose. Anything but first is not an option. One can never be in the shadow of
someone else. If there is a stage, you must be on it. If there is a spotlight,
you must be in it. You never enter a contest to do your best; you enter only
with the goal of winning.
Sometimes winners don’t win the race. In sports there can only be
one winner, but some races such as a marathon are seen by many not so much as a
competition against the others in the race as it is a personal challenge
against one’s self. The prize is being able to finish, being able to say with
pride you did your best and that carried you through.
In the big car races for some drivers the goal is to finish the
race, to take their car from beginning to end in good time without a wreck.
They may not win, but the knowledge gained will be invaluable for the next
effort. Mountain climbers do not start with Everest. Learning to climb by
conquering smaller peaks first is not to lose. It is to gain skills for the
next and greater challenge.
The Apostle Paul came to the end of his life with a certain pride
about his life’s efforts in support of the Kingdom of God. In II Timothy 4:7 he
gives us the words he might have wanted on his tombstone. “I have fought well.
I have finished the race, and I have been faithful.” (CEV)
In I Cor. 9:26-27, Paul talks about what he must do to succeed as
a faithful servant of God. “I don’t run without a goal. And I don’t box by
beating my fists in the air. I keep my body under control and make it my slave,
so I won’t lose out after telling the good news to others.” (CEV) Paul sees
himself as a winner when his life reflects a submission to the God he serves
and faithfulness in delivering the good news of God’s love without his own
failure to live out God’s expectations.
A winner in the eyes of God is not always the one who stands on
the highest dais, nor the one who comes in first. Sometimes it is simply the
one who finishes against overwhelming odds. Sometimes it is simply remaining
faithful to the task regardless of the final position.
Eric Compton would have loved to have won the US Open Golf
tournament. The prestige and the money make it a major goal for a professional
golfer. Yet if you ask him and close family and friends, you would probably
hear them say his presence in the tournament at all was an event that filled
them with the greatest joy.
Winning in the eyes of the world will always come second to
winning in the eyes of God. At the end of the race, when God says,
“Wonderful!...You are a good and faithful servant…Come and share in my
happiness” (Matthew 25:21, CEV), we will know none of his people ever come in
second. They are all winners.
