Recently there are those that think when a child’s team plays a sport they all get a trophy so no one will feel left out. They are all treated the same, those that played hard and those who sat on the bench. That takes away incentive to be better, try harder, to be the winner.

When Roger Federer won Wimbledon they didn’t give a trophy to all the players. He was the winner. He had spent hours practicing, sweating, listening to his coach…When Bubba Watson won the Masters they didn’t give a green jacket to every player. They recognized his dedicated effort and skill. These champions had dedicated their lives to becoming the best – and they were. No apologies.There is nothing wrong with being a winner. It is a recognition that you have tried harder, developed your skills more, worked more diligently. It is not a put down of the others it is a recognition of skill and hard work. We admire them  – or I do. And I resent when someone comes along and says that if you have worked hard and done your best and dedicated you life to a goal and achieved it, that somehow you really didn’t do that. What sort of reasoning is that? It takes away incentive.

Ask the Olympians in the next couple of weeks what they think about the notion that they didn’t get there with their own hard work. Yes, there are coaches pushing them, family members supporting them, friends encouraging them and God-given talent but in the end they are the ones who have trained, sweat, agonized, suffered the injuries…There achievement is a singular accomplishment. They will not apaologize for their having won. Nor should they. We will all applaud loudly and be thrilled for them.

We are all unique individuals. God made us that way and one day we will stand before Him individually and answer for our lives. We cannot pass it off to a group. We face Him alone. God isn’t into “group think” or “passing the buck”. We are responsible for our achievements and our failures. Our sins. We will not be able to blame it on our parents, our siblings, our culture, our society…Adam tried to blame Eve, Eve blamed the serpent…and see where it got them – and us.

Fortunately when we do stand before God in all our nakedness and He sees everything we ever thought or did…we have and Advocate in Jesus and will find mercy.