How Not to Earn a Trophy
I’ve won two trophies in my entire life.
- First place in the broad jump. I was a kid at a Christian camp for boys, and I was less than a week away from being in the next older group of boys. So, yeah, I beat out kids several years younger than me. (Don’t ask why I didn’t win in any other event.)
- Third place in a high school speech contest. I won’t tell you how many others competed, but let’s just say we wouldn’t be able to form a gospel quartet. And the judges topped it off by spelling my name wrong on the trophy. (Or maybe that’s how it sounded in my speech.)
Yep. That’ s it. Now I don’t begrudge those among you with more trophies than me (which would be, um, pretty much everybody). But if I was a kid today, boy-o-boy, would I have a collection of trophies!. As unathletic as I am—I miss the floor when I dribble a basketball—my parents’ mantle would be full of these: 
WHO REALLY WANTS A PARTICIPATION TROPHY?? That’s the sports’ version of “Bless his heart.”
I just want to give whoever came up with this idea his or her own participation trophy. It’s my way of saying, “Bless your heart. You tried, but that is the lamest way to reward those who succeed in winning. And it won’t motivate the rest of us to try harder.”
Trophies become meaningless when everyone gets one.
And even though most of us deplore these trophies, we want one. (pause for dramatic effect) That’s right. Way too many Christians sit on the sidelines spiritually, but they fully expect Jesus to say to them one day, “Well done, good and faithful participant.” There’s an apathetic contentment to get the spiritual version of a participation trophy.
The Bible is clear on two things:
1. Our salvation is fully secured in Jesus Christ. We don’t work hard or earn our way into heaven. Jesus “earned” it for us.
“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
2. A reward awaits those who serve Christ.
“I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).
“Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:8).
“There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).
I have no idea what that reward entails, but I know that it will be worth it, going far beyond the level of my service—and certainly beyond what I deserve.
Don’t just show up and sit on the bench. Serve Christ—and serve Him by serving others. You’ll discover that this “work” may take effort, but it comes packed with joy.
And that joy is better than any stupid participation trophy.
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This post supports the study “Baruch” in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.
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