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“When Victory Becomes Complacency”
Categories: Add To Your Faith | 2025, Christian character, discipleship
Sometimes victory is the greatest enemy of excellence. That seems counterintuitive, but it’s nonetheless true. Often, our success does not lead to more success, instead it leads to complacency. I’m sure this phenomenon pops up in many different places in life, but I see it most often in athletics.
I see it in the team who wins the championship one year but misses the playoffs in the next because they just don’t have the same drive and hunger to win it all. I see it in the phenom who finally makes it to the big leagues but stops working because they feel they have “arrived.” I see it in the player who is awarded that enormous contract and then never plays hard again. Sometimes victory is the greatest enemy of excellence.
Might that also be true when it comes to spiritual things? I think that’s a temptation for all of us. We use our spiritual success as an excuse to slouch back into spiritual complacency. What’s that look like? Maybe a little like this…
“I conquered my temper, my worry, my lust, etc. Now I can just coast to the finish line.”
“I built a beautiful marriage and raised good kids. My work here is done!”
“I helped convert my dear friend. I worked on them through my teaching and my example for years and they finally responded! I’ve done my duty in evangelism.”
“For the past two decades I’ve been that person who made every visitor feel welcome, I’ve opened my home liberally, I’ve been a picture of hospitality. Time for someone else to take up the mantle.”
These are not small things! These are tremendous spiritual victories! Yet, if we’re not careful, victory becomes complacency. Adding “arete” to our faith means that we continually press on toward excellence despite our accomplishments. It means that, like Paul, we forget the things that are behind and press on toward perfection. It means we refuse to allow what has been done to distract us from what still needs to be done (Philippians 3:12-14).
- Jonathan Banning, Minister — Temple Terrace Church of Christ
