Article November 30, 1963 Issue

True Competition

[Of Special Interest to Young Men and Women]

JANE KIRK HUNTLEY

Competition is one of the chief incentives to endeavor in human affairs. From earliest childhood young people are placed in competitive situations. Striving to surpass the achievement of others, to do something better than it has been done before, is considered a praiseworthy human goal. But when this assumes the form of a struggle for fame and personal success, it may become rivalry, based on purely selfish motivation. This causes individuals to believe they must try to deprive their fellowmen of something in order to enrich or glorify themselves.

As Christian Scientists we understand that man is already complete—that since God bestows all good equally on each of His children and each one already has all, nothing can be added to this completeness. Does this knowledge obliterate all incentive for constructive effort humanly? Does this mean that a Scientist never enters into competition with others? On the contrary. It simply means that he goes about it from a different standpoint.

We do not strive to deprive another of any good, but individually and collectively we endeavor to perceive God's nature better and to express it and to open the way for others to see and express it too. If one of us comprehends one aspect of God more clearly than others do, so that he is able to express it competently, it should not be for his own glory that he does it, but for the glory of God.

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