The Most Important Skill In Debate - Part 4

The Most Important Skill in All Debate, Part 4

To wrap this series up, here is the third aspect of glorifying God that we haven’t yet got to (see my previous post). 

Aspect #3: Treating yourself well

There is a level to glorifying God that I eventually realized doesn’t even have to do with how you treat your fellow competitors or your judges: it’s how you treat yourself. Remembering the basic principle that success is ultimately determined by God’s opinion of you, not by the size of the empty cup you receive, and remembering that man may look at the outside but the Lord looks at the heart, we are left with the conclusion that the ultimate form of success in speech & debate is a heart that glorifies the Lord, regardless of outward success.

Because of this, I realized that it is better to go 0-6 and simply be thanking God for the ability to speak, than to win the largest tournament on a perfect record and do so with a stuck-up, arrogant attitude. Now that was hard to swallow. My pride protested back: “I want to win; winning is what debate is about!” No, I realized, winning is (frankly) garbage, if it’s not done with a heart that is pleasing to God. As Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 [NASB]). Nothing is a scary word. Nothing. 

Apart from the Lord, I bear no fruit. If I compete with a selfish or condescending attitude, other people may not see it (although to be honest they probably will), but God will. He is by far the most intimidating Judge at a tournament: He sees the inside of the heart and casts the only eternally significant ballots. If I won the tournament apart from Him, then it meant nothing in His eyes. And since He is the objective standard for truth, it means that, objectively, my win meant nothing. 

There’s a flipside, however. If I win a tournament with a heart pleasing to God, then I have to give Him the glory for it! A branch can’t really claim the acclaim for producing its fruit; apart from the vine it would have withered into kindling. This puts us into a wonderful double-bind: If we win apart from Christ, it’s worthless. If we win while abiding in Christ, we give Him the glory. Conclusion: we can never take the glory for ourselves.

This doesn’t mean that we can never be happy about our wins; that’s a natural reaction to success that is entirely appropriate and is even unhealthy to suppress. But there’s a difference between being happily thankful to God for the blessings He has given us, glorifying Him for them, and the alternative of taking the glory for ourselves, being arrogantly conceited about “our” skills—which He gave us in the first place.

However, what about losing? It happens to all of us, but it’s still not fun. It can mean simply the missed opportunity for one more thrill of competition, or it can mean failure to earn a really important scholarship. However losing strikes you, I think there’s a fine line to be maintained: Being disappointed is natural, and probably unhealthy to completely suppress. But being angry or depressed is not okay. One thing that was helpful to me was to remind myself that all things work for the good of those who love the Lord, and that includes wins as well as losses. I should probably thank God for the things that work for my good, right? It’s hard, but it’s true.

In hindsight, I’ve had losses that have made me a better debater for the next tournament, I’ve had losses that gave me a much-needed blow to the ego, and I’ve had losses that have given someone else the chance for a spectacular win. The problem is that our viewpoint is locked inside the finite box of here-and-now-disappointment. It’s all a matter of perspective, and from God’s perspective it is working out for good. I truly believe that God is more pleased with a “loser” who thanks Him for the loss, than a “winner” who thanks himself for the win. That is ultimate success in the eyes of the Ultimate Judge.

All in all, the key aspect that I learned about glorifying God in how I treat myself was this: Give God the glory for whatever success you are able to achieve, and thank Him for any losses you suffer. If you’re having an issue with either, one thing that helped me was to remind myself that God is the only Judge who truly matters. Pretend you’re giving your debate to Jesus Christ alone. No one else is in the room. He is holding the pen and ballot and watching you as you perform. You don’t need to be nervous, because He’s working this for your good. You should not be prideful, because He can see your heart. That was really comforting to me. 

In conclusion…

Wow, we’ve gone down quite the trail here. Let’s take a final glance back at our pyramid. If we look past all the other priorities in debate: past the parents holding pens and brightly colored pieces of paper, past the laughs we have with our friends, past even the future opportunities we’ll have because of what we’re learning now, there is one priority that cannot be looked past, because it is the ultimate one. How well are you glorifying God during your time as a competitor? 

So why did I call this series “The Most Important Skill in All of Debate,” when I haven’t talked about any debate skills? It’s because, in my humble opinion, the most important skill in all of debate is not a debate skill at all. It’s the frustratingly demanding yet eternally rewarding skill of character.

Success is not “the number of gold things on my shelf.” Success is not “the number of theoretical points I have on a ranking website.” Success is not “the amount of conversations that people have about me” or “the number of competitors who quake in their high heels when they see my name posted next to theirs.”

Success is not even “the friendships that I make” or “the life skills that I learn.” All these things are important. But they are not what true success is. 

Success is doing the right thing in the sight of God.