Winning

It seems to me we are obsessed with winning. You have probably noticed the Olympic Games have started and already we are studying the medal table to see how the GB team is faring. Maybe you are like me and you expect to see GB somewhere near the bottom of the table, if indeed we even make it onto the table at all. Maybe I’m being harsh. Maybe I’m remembering Olympic Games gone by when we didn’t win lots and lots of medals. We did in 2012 when London hosted the games. That was our best games ever. We invested a lot of money in those games as a nation because we wanted to win medals. Apparently it says something about us as a nation if we do that kind of thing. It seems winning medals is a way we can compare our nation with other nations. And that’s true it is one way of comparing our nation with other nations. I guess the question becomes: is that a good or useful way to compare our nation to any other nation? Some would say yes. Others might disagree. Just recently there’s been a big debate about the reduction of giving to overseas aid from our GDP. we’ve reduced it from 0.7% to 0.5%. Christian Aid say that in doing this we have compromised our country’s values and broken our foreign aid promises and that it is the poorest people in the world who will suffer the consequences. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything particularly celebrating the winning of the saving of lives of the poorest people on earth. And how would you do that anyway? We don’t give out medals for that kind of thing. Maybe I’m guilty of comparing different things. Maybe. But what if we measure our success as a nation by how much we help other, much poorer nations? By being less obsessed with what makes us look good and more concerned about the quality of human life we can bestow on others? I love watching the Olympics. I do. And I do love to see GB win. I do. What I think plays on my mind is the place we give to winning and what that tells us about ourselves. Perhaps if I’d been good enough to compete at an Olympics I’d think differently. I’m not trying to do anyone down or belittle anyone or anything. But I am reminded of the words Jesus spoke: “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.” (Matthew 25:40) I might be wrong, but it does seem to me that wining in the Kingdom of the Heavens might be different to winning so that we can compare ourselves favourably to others.