Original Manuscript:
What is the most important thing in any sport?
No, it's not winning.
It's honor. Or to use the old cliché, "it's how you play the game."
How you play the game is a sign of who you are. What you are. And as Christians, our entire life is meant to be a sign pointing back to God.
As an athlete myself, a fencer and a runner, one of my favorite movies is Chariots of Fire. It tells the story of the 1928 Olympics, focusing on Eric Liddell, a Scottish Missionary and runner for the Great Britain Track team.
Early in the film, Eric meets with his father and some of the other elders of his church. They tell him he needs to keep running. People need to see a "muscular Christian".
What people really need to see is that a Christian can be muscular. They need to see that you can honor the Lord with every part of you. As Eric says to his sister later in the film "when I run, I feel His pleasure."
(I'd take the next step and say we show gratitude to God by allowing ourselves to grow strong and healthy. We show we care about the life God has given us, and that we want to extend that life as long as the Lord wills us to have it, long or short.)
But Eric knew it wasn't just his running that pleased God. It pleased God that Eric was running for Him.
The main part of the film involves a choice. Eric finds out his heat is on a Sunday. So he has to choose whether he is going to put God first or running for his country first.
Eric chooses God, but he's still able to run. Another runner gives him his spot in another race.
This isn't to say that everything will work out well for us all the time. Or that God doesn't want us to anything on a Sunday. It's what are our priorities? Are we for God or are we for something else?
If we are for God, then winning isn't our first priority. Honor is. Honor is being a good sport. Honor is playing fairly. Honor is showing others what it means to be a Christian. Honor is showing love to all.
Honor is about being a good example to others. A beacon to shine the way to Christ Jesus. Which is a hard thing sometimes. Sometimes it means we have to lose graciously.
I'm a competitive person. I don't like to lose. And my main sport, fencing, I've had times were I've won a lot and times where I've not. But I've tried to be kind and helpful to others learning the sport. I've found that being kind has been better for me in the long run. It's meant I've made friends with people at different clubs and from different places. It's meant people I've just met start cheering me on. That's not what I've seen from fencers who are mean to others.
You may lose, but if you are kind you will have friends and support. Those are what really matter in the long run. And hopefully someone else will see your actions and come to know Jesus Christ more fully through your kindness, through your example, through your being Christ-like.