The Trophy of Life

Recently my five-year-old son and four-year-old daughter went to get in the van to go somewhere. Apparently my son wanted it to be a competition, and after he was the first one there he declared, “I was first in the car!” My daughter responded with a dramatic hand to the forehead, and with great exasperation, “You always win the trophy of life!” I thought of that comical exchange when I read these words of James today: “Blessed is the man that resisteth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (JST James 1:12). Surely what my daughter meant by the “trophy of life” and what James referred to as the “crown of life” must be similar! Unfortunately for my daughter, she feels that to “win” she has to perform better than her brother, and given his age advantage that’s not usually possible. But what James was teaching was that we are not in competition with each other for our eternal reward; rather, the race is against sin and temptation. To obtain the spiritual prize we are seeking, our focus is inward and not external on what others are or are not doing. What matters most is that we learn to resist temptation and love the Lord. Our eternal exam is not graded on a curve; the Lord wants to give us all the maximum reward possible. Nephi expressed his anti-competitive feelings this way: “And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day” (2 Nephi 33:12). There is room in heaven for all those who love the Lord and earnestly seek to keep His commandments.

               These words from James remind me of the encouragement that Paul gave the Saints of his day to “run” in the race of life. He wrote to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain…. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly” (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26). I don’t believe he was suggesting that they run against each other but that their race was against sin, and it would take consistent effort on their part to win that race. We cannot figuratively stand still spiritually and expect to receive the blessings the Lord has in store for us; rather, we must run. He said elsewhere, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Our life is not a sprint but a race to be run patiently and persistently, always looking towards Jesus who is beckoning us on. Paul said to the Galatians, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:6-7) He compared their spiritual progress to having run, just as he did his own labors: “And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain” (Galatians 2:2). He felt his missionary labors among the Gentiles were analogous to running, and he hoped that he had not done so in vain: “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Philippians 2:16). The Lord invites all of us to metaphorically run in the gospel, never letting sin and temptation overtake us but looking forward always to Jesus Christ who has prepared the way before us. I hope my young daughter will understand that she doesn’t have to beat her older brother in any sibling rivalry—I get the feeling he is always going to win those kind of competitions—but that with perseverance and unwavering faith in the Savior she can win the true “trophy of life.”