The Battle's Fierce, but the Victory's Won: The Unique Tasks and Blessings of the Competitive Christian

Abstract

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis suggests that Satan and his evil angels can only mutilate and cannot create anything. Where does competitiveness come from? Is it a product of God’s creation or of Satan’s mutilation? Is competitiveness a symptom of sin that needs to be drowned with our old man, or is it a blessing from God? This paper answers that question by exploring Scripture, studying Clifton Strengths, interviewing experts of CliftonStrengths, and researching both the positive and negative views of competitiveness. From this research, it is concluded that competitiveness is a blessing from God that Satan often mutilates to serve his purpose. This presents the competitive Christian with unique tasks that other Christians may not have, primarily an increased difficulty to think less of self. At the same time, the competitive Christian has unique blessings. Those blessings are increased motivation to run the race marked out for him or her and the tremendous joy of knowing that Christ’s victory is theirs.