Who do you want to win?
In a year of the Football World Cup and with elections coming up in many countries, this question seems to be asked frequently.

What does ‘winning’ really mean? The word ‘win’ has gone through several stages before today’s meaning was developed. According to the word’s etymology, the root is the Proto-Indo-European ‘wenh’ which meant to strive, wish, desire, love. However, it was also connected with words like toil, conquer, suffer and fight.
We often forget that the context is crucial when we talk about winning a football match, the elections or the selection for a job, the lotto, or even winning the heart of a person. The result seems to be the same. There is a winner and there is a loser – but is the result really so easy to state?
Winning a football match or winning elections should be an easy decision: the players train for years, they toil, fight and might even suffer to get into the team and the match they strive to be in. The spectators will judge how well each player is personally prepared and performs during the match, how well they play as a team and how well they can represent a whole nation in an international setting. If they win, it is an obvious win for the whole team and their supporters. The team players have completed their task. The game is over.

The winners of elections have often prepared themselves for many years, but sometimes they have a team of advisors around them who support them in a way that the voters are not aware of. The candidates can be led by a true desire to fight for their principles, but they can also mislead the voters and pretend to be what they are not. The winner of an election might have gained the trust of the voters, but the work starts after the victory. They are chosen and will be measured against their promises.

Winning the lotto or any other competition that is based on luck puts every participant on the same level. Prepared or unprepared. The winner takes it all.

The most emotional type of winning might be the winning of someone’s heart. It might be a combination of the three versions of winning: personal preparation and fighting to gain the heart of a person but then having to work on maintaining their trust and consolidating their relationship for the rest of their lives. The lotto element can also come in as it is a question of luck if one ever meets a person they feel they want to fight for in the first place.

These examples show that winning can have huge consequences. There will never be a truly level playing field. Some participants are better equipped from birth, others have had more chances or energy when it comes to education, and then there are the opportunities. Often, famous people talk about a certain occasion where they happened to be at the right time meeting the right person who triggered their interest or prepared their way for a certain career.

As spectators and voters, these kinds of opportunities might be outside of our control, but we can contribute to a good and fair match, election or selection process.
We can demand fair and unbiased processes. After all, we don’t want to be betrayed. Conceding victory to a righteous winner is as important as treating the losers with dignity.
St Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7 that “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

BM