BEST?

This weekend TdF winner, Alberto Contador, was outed as having performance enhancement drugs in his blood system. It was a minimal amount and his excuse was some steak a friend brought him from Spain. Later it was announced that in addition he has some 'plasticizer' in his blood stream that appears to be evidence of blood doping. AC's response was to threaten retiring from the sport if his claim of innocence is not sustained by the governing authorities.

This insane quest to be the best is not just killing road cyclists (the side effects are cancerous) and a sport I enjoy, but it is threatening the entire human race. We compete for resources so that we can have the best life possible. We go to war with other nations because they have something we feel we need to make our lives better. We are willing to skewer the economy and the livelihood of many just so we can claim that our investment company is outperforming all others (and by the way we secure for ourselves this great big bonus). It's not just greed, but it is the hunger and desire to be the 'best' at what we do that is threatening our civilization.

Now I'm not saying we shouldn't strive to do our best. I'm concerned that our self-worth and the worth others shower upon us is dependent upon being better than others. Once we lose this sense that God loves us no matter how we perform on the SATs we are easily manipulated by this fear of failure. Once our value is judged by the market rather than by the creator we simply become commodities ourselves.

Alberto is a great cyclist and a gifted athlete. In order to win, however, he felt he needed to go over the edge to gain an edge on the competition. When we have to win, be the best, with no sense of our identity in Christ, we are left with cheating ourselves and others in the scramble to the top of the pile. But honestly, is it really worth it?