Competition: Life Lessons from an iOS Game

I've played games by the name of Motorsport Manager on my phone. This includes a racing game. A game not so much about actually driving cars, but more about managing an entire racing brand to victory. A victory accomplished only after many seasons and tiers. There's honestly nothing really special about the game, but as I played it on my lunch breaks and during baby bottle feedings, I began to realize the game was trying to teach you some things.As I watched my virtual drivers running to their maximum capability, failing often but always working to improve their skills, my research division coming up with ways to improve the car no other team's thought of yet, and my manufacturing guys taking my monetary investment to find better ways to make the car more reliable, the game slowly became less about just simply concentrating on coming in first place during a race. It rather started becoming more about innovation, raw talent and a spirit of competition outside of the race. About taking my team as a whole, from pit crew to research designers. Operating them at the pinnacle of their capabilities. Taking the team from being nothing to becoming the top team in the entire tier over the course of time.

Just like in real life , no one hands you a car once you say you want to race.

You build one from scratch. Investing time and gobs of money into building your car, your team, and your talent from nothing. All the other teams do the same thing. Breakthroughs are trade secrets and teams work in secrecy from each other to find every possible enhancement to give them the tiniest cutting edge on the track. And these enhancements are world-leading: standard car companies benefit from the innovations found on the track.The standings at the end of the race aren't the focus, the focus is competing to your maximum in every possible area off the track. Focusing on constantly improving and innovating and your position at the finish line being merely a by-product of all that work. Such competition among mankind has permeated throughout history, from the ancient Olympics to children playing games in the street.

Competition is part of the human fabric.

In 1 Cor 9:24-25 NIV, Paul likens our very lives to being in a race. Paul says that we are to go into strict training and to "run in such a way as to get the prize". What is he saying? COMPETE! God celebrates in such competition among men, in using our gifts and sharpening them.

Related Post: We Have a Calling On Our Lives to Live

And just like in the little iOS game, we get there by acknowledging we all start from scratch. We all start at the bottom tier and then concentrating on operating at our pinnacle innovation level to become better and better as we progress through the tiers in life.

God WANTS you to compete.

Wants you to use whatever gifts He's invested into you and DO something with them. Sharpen and hone them, use them for Him and to the gain of His Kingdom. Use them for the benefit of others, and lastly, yes, for your own gain. They were given to you to sustain others and sustain yourself.When you use the investment he's put into you of raw talent and, through effort and determination, become the very best you can. Bring it to bear in the global arena of competition, it brings Him glory. And when such capacity is applied for the sake of the gospel, the gold cup for first place is eternal.