Matthew 6:5
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

Spit crosses and self-blessings

That said, what do we make of Olympic Silver Medalist Leo Manzano, who could be clearly seen making “spit crosses” from head to toe before several of his races. The diminutive Manzano made track history coming from far behind to place 2nd in the Olympic final 1500 meters race, the first time in decades any American (native born or naturalized like Manzano) has broken through to a medal at that distance.

So you could legitimately argue that Manzano’s highly unorthodox method of “prayer”––he administers a self-blessing by making spit crosses on his body in advance of a race–– was truly successful. His prayers to win a medal were answered by God. Were they not?

Not so fast. We must also accommodate several other factors when assessing the prayers answered by God when it comes to competition.

Let us suppose there are 16 athletes in the Olympic 1500. 4 are Christian, and all say prayers to God for success. 5 others are Muslim, and they all pray to Allah. 3 are agnostic, but choose to say a brief prayer just in case it helps, and the last, the Gold Medalist, happens to be atheist and does not even think about God at all before the race. Is God therefore rewarding the unfaithful and unjust? Punishing the faithful for pale hopes?

This is no joke. The composition of most athletic competitions is a very mixed bag. And what do we make of Christians or Muslims or Jews or Buddhists who are active in their faith but do not pray at all for individual success in competition, but trust in their training and (God-given?) talent to get them through?

A capricious God, at times

The Bible does show many faithful people getting their prayers answered. Some get immediate results, while others wait years and through impossible circumstance before a prayer and a miracle come true. But the Bible also shows entire nations that have fallen away from faith and trust in God being neglected or destroyed when God lets enemies overthrow them. That is the ultimate form of earthly competition, and yet God “lets them down.” Hmmm.

In fact it is fair to say that God dispenses as many harsh lessons to his faithful as he does answers to fervent prayers. Look at the biblical record. John the Baptist got his head chopped off. The loyal Job was tortured in effect by a wager between God and his greatest challenger, the Evil One. Many great heroes of the Bible suffered long and hard before receiving so-called rewards from God. The Bible tells us perseverance is as important as joy in building good character. That darn little book, the Bible. So full of apparent contradictions, isn’t it? It’s almost like God doesn’t want us to know what’s going to happen next, so that we have to be vigilant managing our free will in context with what God wills for us. That is; to love and be loved.

The perseverant

I can think of a few former teammates whose athletic careers were anything but triumphant. Many never even cracked the top 7 in cross country. Yet they put in all those miles. Sweated. Suffered. Ran through pain. Threw up. Sacrificed time and treasure. Some never even earned a varsity letter.

Then there were those who did enjoy success, and whose faith seemed to be a part of their ability to persevere. Yet when I asked one of these friends years after high school what he liked about running and competing on our team, he blurted: “Nothing. I hated running.”

His answer shocked me, to be honest. He was quiet and never complained about running. I can still see his bespectacled face grimacing as he approached the finish chute. He was tough, fast and competitive. Yet he hated it. Is this also what God wants from us? To suffer through things we hate?

I happened to love running. Most of the time. But I can remember praying that God would scoop me up from the infield and whisk me away to heaven during one spring track meet when I wasn’t yet that fit, and was dreading a competition in the 2-mile against runners I knew were much superior competitors. God didn’t answer that prayer. He probably knows what’s good for me.

Developing a real winning perspective

Having been fortunate to win a number of races in my career, I cannot definitively say that God played favorites with me at any time. That observation is made in context of other situations where I felt God played an intrinsic role in the events and the outcome––for better or worse.

In competitions of a wide variety there were circumstances where Providence seemed like it was at work, but sports is so ephemeral. For all the winning and losing one does in a career, it is the cumulative effect and how it effects your overall character that matters the most. No single game or event can really define “success,” as it were. So you can’t say that God either helped you win or lose. But it seems you can say that having faith in God teaches you the real difference between the two, in the long run.

Prayers as stumbling blocks

So I personally do not rely on that specific sort of prayer about a contest or an outcome to help me win. Those types of prayers can turn out to be stumbling blocks in your life.

By the time you’ve gotten to the starting line, all that you are and want to be should have been prayed about well in advance. That is part of your preparation and training.

Gratitude and attitude

Then comes gratitude at being able to compete. That is the first order of business, following by gratitude for your competition.

That’s right! Think about it! Your competitors are the ones who will actually make you better in one way or the other. And think about the pressure that takes off your shoulders when you go out to compete! Yes, it’s good to want to win or outrace your competitors. But rather than regarding them as a symbol of total opposition or fear, they become instead your collaborators in success. You’re racing with them as well as against them. That’s why, if you win, you should turn and thank them for a good race. They have earned that respect from you. Hopefully they will do likewise. But if they do not, be gracious. Emphasis here on the word grace, which you have been given, and that you should extend. When the competition is over, a gracious winner is loved and a gracious loser is respected. God loves them both.

Gratitude is an attitude. It is best therefore to give thanks in all things, the good and the bad. That way God knows you are paying attention to the lessons in the losses as well as the affirmations in the wins. God isn’t too fond of the proud, it is said, or the boastful, only that you are boastful in the greatness of God.

Where credit is due

“All glory to God,” I heard one female sprinter say after her victory in an Olympic event. “Without Him I would not be here.”

Okay, that’s fair. We might also assume that God was there with her as well when she fell in training, got hurt in the cold, got worried in her soul or lost hope during those long 4 years between Olympics. It seems like winning is really just part of the overall picture of the role that God does or doesn’t play in our lives.

We can look to examples of runners like Allyson Felix, who before the London Olympics had not won a gold medal in her favorite event, the 200 meters, but she “kept the faith” and finally won her event.

Another Olympic athlete who earned vindication of a sort was cyclist Alexander Vinokourov, a tough cyclist who got caught doping during the Tour de France a fews years back, then came back to the sport after his ban only to crash. But he slipped through a giant pileup at the Olympic road race to pedal to a strong victory. Whether he’ll now retire remains to be seen, even though the cyclist is nearing 40 years old.

We all know it can be so frustrating to train long and hard only to fail at your big objective, be it a marathon, a 10K, a triathlon or century ride. But these athletes show us that having faith in yourself, and perhaps faith in God as well, can work wonders.

The answer to “What is God’s role in competition?”

So the answer to the question “What role does God play in competition?” is perhaps simpler than we make it out to be.

It begins with this: God loves you for who you are. He revels in your successes and commiserates in your losses. He feels your pain and he knows your doubt. When you go to him in prayer asking for that “one thing” your heart so desires, the Bible says it will be delivered. But then, it also says it may not. God reserves judgment to determine what is best for you. That is a hard reality for some to take.

When King David asked God if he could build a temple in His honor, God said no. “You have too much blood on your hands,” He advised David. “But I will let your next of kin build the temple.”

And it was so. But the challenge raised by that story is a lesson for us all.

God really does appear to love people who compete in His name, but God has rules and He doesn’t like when people stretch them for their own sake.

God also equally loves the humble and meek, and those who do not choose to compete for competition’s sake. Some cannot even afford to eat, or are too sick to get out of bed. Others suffer mental and physical illnesses that afflict them for no apparent reason. These people used to be called ‘cursed by God.’ But we now know better. Or at least we should. Richer or poorer, we all have to make sense of our lot (and our obligations to God) through prayer, asking forgiveness for the flaws and behaviors that do not honor God.

That is the worst risk for any athlete glorying in their success: That they are somehow free from fault and sin and are somehow favored by God as a result. Because even when you are better than everyone at a sport, that does not make your better or more favored in God’s eyes.

So when you raise your arms in triumph with your prayers seemingly answered in victory or achieving a goal, remember that God’s top priority is for us to love not just ourselves but to love and serve others the most. Competition is a form of that service. We can inspire or motivate others. Raise money for good causes. Invite people along on your journey, to share in your triumph. But ultimately your response to victory should be simple: If God bestowed this favor on me, to whom can I now bestow blessings upon?

That is the competition God really wants us to win. The rest is simply training for the perseverance and dedication it takes to achieve that goal: To love others as God loves you, even your enemies. 

That may not be the message some competitors want to hear. But it is a message that is proven to make the world a better place.

More than the Olympics. More than triumph on the field, road or track. That is the role God wants us to play in competition.

Amen.