THE COMPETITIVE CHRISTIAN: A Contradiction?

I've considered several arts-related careers during my life -- jobs like ballet dancer, graphic designer and photographer have all enjoyed a turn on my "things I want to be when I grow up" list. As a kid, I jumped from one thing to the next, dabbling in all sorts of creative territories to see what suited me best, but when my final year of high school rolled around, I was faced with making a final decision about the direction that I would take in life. After lots of prayer, reflection, and deliberation, I decided that my future career would be in the field of writing. Although this was a big change from most of the jobs that I'd considered in the past, one thing about it stayed the same: the response that I got from others. I'd heard it a million times before: "You want to do that for a job? But it's such a competitive field, Oksana! The only people who do well in it are the 'big names;' it's so hard for newcomers to get anywhere." After a while, I stopped listening to these admonitions. After all, I didn't want to be the biggest name in the business -- all I wanted to do was to live out the mission that God had given me by serving others through my creativity. There's no need to be competitive to accomplish that!

Or is there?

A couple of months later, I began resurrecting Multi Media Ministry in hopes of turning the e-zine into the 'next big thing' -- I planned on getting new readers, recruiting new writers, and building an online community that would take the internet by storm and revolutionize the world of Christian creativity. When April 19th, the launch day, came, I was buzzing with excitement to watch hordes of youth from every continent flock to the site in a frenzy of readership and contribution. Instead, I got 39 readers.

At first, I didn't mind it at all -- I knew that, while their numbers might be small, every reader was a valuable brother or sister whom I was privileged to serve in this way. But then I decided that it would be fun to compare my progress with that of a few other sites, so I hopped around to several of my favourite e-zines, and an ugly feeling started to well up inside of me. Are you kidding me? -- that site has have 40 comments on that post and I barely have 40 readers! As I realized that my e-zine still had a long, long way to go before it could brush against the success of other websites, I began to understand what my parents had meant when they spoke about "competitive business" -- it really is tough to get ahead in the world of writing!

If you're going into a any sort of arts-related career, I'm sure the same is true for you. Look at Hollywood, for instance: how easy is it for a young actor to make a name for himself among so many stars? With rigorous exams and selective companies, how sure can any ballerina be of her success in the dancing world? And music? CD charts are proof enough of the tight competition in that field! Although most people immediately associate competition with sports, there's plenty of room for it in creativity. But just how much room is there for a competitive personality in the Christian life?

Competition in the arts happens when two or more artists try to serve the same group of people in the same way. Here's what I mean: is there competition between a rapper and a gospel singer, or between a painter and a writer? No, because even if these artists aim their work at the same group of people, they do it in two different ways, so their efforts don't overlap. Likewise, is there competition between a writer of children's books and one who writes for adults? No, because both writers are catering to different audiences. Competition only becomes a problem when you have two rap artists, or two painters, or two authors of children's books, because one of the two will inevitably end up having more success than the other. So how should Christians approach this situation?

We could look at competition as a healthy thing. After all, there's no doubt that it leads to better work results: when people want to stand out in the arts world, they improve the quality and originality of their work until it surpasses what is already on the market. Competing goes hand-in-hand with comparison, and each time you gain an improvement over one artist, there's always somebody else who has set the bar higher. The harder you work, the more challenging the standard becomes, and your skills are constantly growing to meet it.

On the flip side, however, comparisons to others should never be a source of motivation for Christians. If you're only worried about getting more readers or selling more CDs than the next person, you're losing sight of God's standard and the unique plan that he has for your ministry. God doesn't necessarily measure your success by the number of people you reach or the amount of work you produce. If you're a writer, it isn't about getting the most readers -- it's about ministering well to the readers that God gives you, however many there may be. If you're an artist, it's not about completing the most paintings -- it's about working on each painting in a way that pleases Christ. Any other goal will eventually leave you unfulfilled: even if you do get to the top and become the best-selling artist or writer in the world, what's next? You've spent all your life comparing yourself to others; who's going to set the bar now? That moment for which you've competed so hard will be nothing but a moment of realization that you've lived for the wrong things. I think it's better to come to that realization sooner than later!

Furthermore, when you compete against others, there's a big chance that you may slip into jealousy. Perhaps there are some people who can be competitive while remaining genuinely happy for the achievements of those who do better than them, but let's face it: for most of us, competition poses a major stumbling block. It's hard to maintain an "I've got to be better than the rest" attitude (which, in itself, isn't very Christlike) without falling prey to its darker underside -- the attitude that says, "If I'm going to win, everyone else needs to lose." It's hard to focus on doing better than others when this can only happen if others do worse than you. You might be surprised to find how quickly innocent competitiveness can turn into thoughts like, "I hope she loses this round. Otherwise, I'll never get to the top." Imagine what would have happened if early disciples like Paul had thought this way; if Christianity had turned into a race to get the most converts, and if leaders had felt threatened by the spiritual growth of others. Thankfully, there was no room for this in the zealous hearts of the world's first Christians; they were unconcerned about any standard but God's, leaving no room for jealousy and aggression to cause divisions in the Church.

Today, competition is very common among Christian ministries and organizations, but I sometimes wonder whether this approach pleases God. When it came to marketing MMM, I was certainly surprised at how simple things like blog comments could turn self-serving when accompanied by a competitive attitude. Whenever I left somebody a comment that linked to MMM, I found myself thinking, "How is this site going to help me? How many readers are going to click this link?" when I should have been thinking, "How can this comment bless readers?" To be competitive, one needs to keep their own interests in mind, and seeing things through the lens of "self" quickly becomes an issue for Christians.

Sometimes, personal interests and motives need to be set aside if we want to maintain unity among believers. Every member of Christ's body has a unique purpose and plays a different, equally-important role in the church. We need to live out these roles in a harmonious and peaceful atmosphere that sets us apart from the combative, hostile ways of the world. If two people happen to have a similar talent or skill, they should work in harmony, not in rivalry -- there are, after all, two eyes and two lungs in a body, but these organs complement one another instead of trying "outwork" the other, or, worse, to bring the other down. Christianity doesn't only ask you to meet God's standard, it expects you to help others do so as well, even if this means that you'll lose out on some individual success by helping another person get ahead. As a Christian, you may have to sacrifice some personal profits that are at odds with the needs of others in the group; competition only encourages you to put these personal interests before those of your brothers.

It has been interesting to watch my "competitive spirit" come out during my work with MMM, and it'll be even more interesting to see how much competition the professional writing world holds in store for me. Thankfully, I've learned a lot about the nature of competition that will help me better deal with it in the future, but many questions still remain... Can competition ever glorify God? Is competition 'all bad' or 'all good,' or does that depend on the person? How can one be competitive without becoming jealous or over-ambitious?

Readers, it's your turn: tell us how you feel about competition in Christianity!

Article by Oksana K. [Editor]
Image credits: Graphic by Oksana. Images from LittleMan and others.