I like personal achievement; I hate getting it at the expense of another.

Angela--  For what it may be worth, experimental psychology frames competition differently. All the real achievement happens before the comparisons of competition, and all who are ready to compete can learn from these comparisons to do better that which they truly love to do. However, although the social practise of competition can be inspiring for those who are able, it does little to enable others to become able in the first place. Enjoy your achievements, but do not expect competition in itself to help you to achieve the really hard ones.

The desire to win is an extrinsic-- and hence relatively weak-- motivator for sustained increases in capability and skill, and the more difficult the performance the less adequate mere competitiveness is as a motivation for the gruelling hard work. However, once one has built up one's capability and skill, an extrinsic motivation (e.g.. applause)  can indeed help one to push one's performance in a given hour to the utmost. Most concert performers experience all of this without actually having to show up someplace for medals in a competition.

However, competition does do one thing very well-- where competitors are similar, it shows them all new potential forms and levels of excellence. Seeing that one team won in this way both obliges and enables competing teams to rethink their strategies in order to beat it. (Yale for example has been trying to catch up to Harvard in the Game for  ;-) Likewise, seeing a runner break a record in the marathon shatters a ceiling on the performance of all other runners in the same class. Without the close comparison of methods that competition enables, this would be impossible.

Which is why artists face critics rather than opponents, and why a bad review is often more ratting than losing a game. With some interesting exceptions (chiefly children, pianists, violinists), artists are so often trying to optimise gifts that are not really malleable for singular artistic challenges (e.g.. singing the lyric tenor in Lucia di Lammermoor), that their best work is hard to compare as straightforwardly as one compares running times. Critics test an artist's performance as competitors test an athlete's performance, but a credible bad review is a more personal thing than a bad round of golf because of what it calls into question about the artist's judgement. Only occasionally is an athletic defeat so singularly meaningful.

As I'm sure you've noticed, this implies that there are inherent limits to the use of competition as a principle of social order.

Yes Bowman, the balance between subjectivity and personal experience and gospel truth is a fine one. But it is indeed how inspiration is given to give people time to discover..As we have seen the Olympics have given opportunity for people to physically stretch their bodies and minds to the limit to aachieve the accolade of being the best or being first..It is a subjective personal thing with a corporate result, in terms of peoples delight and encouragement at success and disappointment and sadness at people inability to succeed at their goal..Which agin we pull out the phraseology of winnicot and say it is good enough, even if not for God it is good enough that you tried at all..

Spirituality has always given the impression that competition is a bad thing and the greatest personal achievement is self sacrifice, but at the same time we have the parable of the coins and the parable of the sower, both of which contradict that theory.

I like personal achievement i hate getting it at the expence of another, but i have no doubt in my mind that all our achievements are got in someway at the expence of another, it is what the price was that is the issue. There is a chorus "the price is paid" Jesus paid it , but it never ceases to amaze me how the church can put surcharges on it!!  ie even the church looks at achievement and social status and makes decisions about who is or is not worthy to enter their buildings etc..

The point is that the bible is a corporate book with a subjective end and it depends who is reading it as to what the subject is but all subjects come under the umbrella of "being the best you can be in the name of Jesus"

I know who I am in the sight of God but people well thats "subjective" lol

Angela

I was interested to read the judgement of whether a 10 year old Girl should be allowed to convert from judaism to christianity. I honestly believe that his judgement was spot on.

I was 12 when i was baptised and Martin the Minister faced the same dilemma only i had to get consent from the social services, of course all the usual comments of not understanding what i was doing were made, as well as it was only a fad. But i can tell you it was my stabilizer, i was different anyway, the only identity i had was not being wanted by either parent, i found i could create my own identity through baptism. I had no faith prior to that so it was not about whether my mother who lived with a hindu or my father agreed, but whether it would be harmful to my development. I cannot say to you that there were no tears or confusion because there was, but, those tears were tears of working it out rather than tears of hopelessness, even though there were times when i felt just that.

This judgement means that this girl will have some control over her life, although in her case, the separation from Jewish friends may be difficult for her, but on the positive side she will be very rounded and will have a very good understanding of the change Jesus experienced when he changed his jewish roots.

There was an evangelical mission in a place close to me today, the poor guy the wind was blowing his stand and tracts everywhere and although many things go on in that little square i havent heard the evangelical alliance there before, it was perhaps unfortunate for me that the first sentence i heard was that "we are all going to die sometime" of course i knew that would be followed by the offer of eternal life, but i could not help but wonder what a non christian hearing what i did might think?

The first words i heard as a child from the church was that Jesus loved me and it took many years for me to believe that, my life and the words of the gospel had an incongruency about them. But when someone tells you that God wants you when no-one else does and whats more it is unconditional, it is an offer that cannot be refused i dont understand why people dont want it.But then maybe its because their world is in order and they dont see a need sometimes like this child in between this divorce ones world is disordered and Jesus offers a constancy. However i say all this with an air of caution loving jesus means sometimes you take the blame for things that are not your fault, because we seek to attain perfection like Jesus in relationships. We all know that Jesus is not glue he wont stick third parties together because we put the glue on the broken bits, but he might make people explore the gospel for themselves and believe because of what they see he does in others lives, well thats how it was for me, what i didnt know at the time is that he was working in my life at the same time as he was working in theirs.

Angela