We were discussing Concern for the One today in class and as we talked about how some people get lost because they grow weary one of the class members, Travis Staten, talked about a marathon that he ran recently. He talked of how weary people get running a marathon and about how everybody encourages their fellow runners. I thought of my own marathon experience and I can attest to that spirit of cooperation. Not only the encouragement from other runners, but the verbal encouragement from those spectators who are watching and cheering for all the runners passing them on the course. I suspect that the selfless instinct to bolster the spirits of all those who are racing “against you” comes from the fact that the course is so long that you are competing against yourself or against the course more than against your fellow competitors. Finishing is an accomplishment.
Travis summed it up perfectly by describing the feeling among runners as:
I’m going to make it – and so are you.
When he said that I realized that our approach to life should be exactly the same.
In recent years, I’ve attempted to make a card game based on the scriptures. I’ve gotten a prototype put together and call it “Chapter and Verse”.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve run into is the fact that the Gospel isn’t a competition, but a game, by its nature, needs to be. It’s not like there are only so many mansions in the celestial kingdom, and so only the first 50, or the top 50 get in. Heavenly Father and Jesus would be thrilled if we all made the grade. That’s their “Work and Glory”.
So, if a game means that we have to undermine our opponents, or even just “better” them, instead of helping, then there’s a problem…
A game, by its nature, must be competitive but perhaps you undermine your own efforts to make the game by the assumption that the gospel is not competitive. In the “me competing against you” way that is true, but in the “me competing against my personal best” it is competitive. We must be striving to improve ourselves and cooperatively striving to help others do their best as well. Is there a way for you to design “Chapter and Verse” as a competition against a standard of performance rather than as a competition against other players?