Proud of My Errors: A Lesson Learned in Quizzing

"If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." -2 Corinthians 11:30

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." -2 Corinthians 12:9

The Spring City quiz team is not known for negative qualities, but if there one negative thing about Spring City, it would the number of errors we produced in a year. Spring City is infamous for our errors. For some reason, it mostly happens in the championship. In 2005, during the ACC Tournament, Spring City errored 36 times, and got the championship. In 2006 ACC Tournament, we errored 22 times, half of them were from Mike Schwager. This earned him the title "Mayor of Errorville." In this past ACC Tournament, by the time we lost in the second round of the playoffs, we had collected 38 errors. If we would have made it to the final match, we probably would've past the 40 error marker easily. Heck, this is just talking about our team! You should see the individuals that help propel errors so high. As I mentioned, in 2005 & 2006, Mike was elected "Mayor of Errorville" because of his vast amount of errors. Yet when he "ran for re-election" in 2007 & 2008, he lost both years to Tim. Tim errors out about 1-3 times a year. Last year, by week 5, Tim had already racked up 19 errors by week 5. He could probably tell you how many he had at the end of the year. Now this isn't just something I know, or my team knows, this is known throughtout the whole ACC. After all, the reason Fred decided that the one bonus given during 4-way fun matches would be random was because [and I do quote Fred exactly], "just in case you're sitting across from Spring City."


It's interesting to see the philosophies of errors on my team. Between my coaches, I think this is the only time I've seen them disagree is on errors. Vicki believes the fewer errors, the better, with the best being no errors at all. If there was a way to get negative errors, she probably would've figured it out. Her concern is that no questions are answered wrong. Dave is the other way. He likes the fact we are trying to buzz in so much, it overshadows the fact we error. He's fine if we error as long as we don't kill any seats, lose points, and keep our head in the right place. Vicki demands us to slow down with too many errors; Dave allows to stay the same speed in buzzing. I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on the coaches, the top 2 quizzers on Spring City seem to have the same split view on errors. Tim's approach on errors is liberal, especially looking at his error record. He's more concerned about how fast he's buzzing more than whether he can answer it correctly or not. I'm more conserative with errors. If you haven't heard my illustration, I think of errors like a traffic light. Your first error is still green light, go at full speed. Your second error is a yellow light; slow down. The third error is your red light because you are forced to stop. I do try to error as little as possible. One of the stats that made my 8th place finish even more satisfactory that I only had 8 errors. That tied my lowest number of errors in my career (well, at least since I started keeping track). Likewise, I encourage my quizmates (quizmates = quizzer/quizzing + teammates, if you haven't figured that out yet) to do the same and keep errors to a minimum. Quizmates who are still below average I tell not to buzz in until they know the correct answer. Quizmates with average performances I tell to buzz in when they have enough of the question that is key and can think up the answer. Quizmates who are above average I tell to buzz in when they hear enough to figure out the rest of the question and then the answer.

I talked about the philosophy on how to deal with errors, but I really didn't talk about the why. Why are errors dealt with the way they are? For those who allow errors and don't mind them, they see it as a show of good effort in attempting to buzz in at the correct time and attempting to answer correctly. The more tries, the better one gets. Well what about those who see errors as evil? What about them? I thought about this for a while, about their bane of errors. I pondered possibly because it gives bonuses to the other team, or that 3 of them for one quizzer kills a seat, or that 5 of them hurts the team's score. These all good possible reasons why. Now, for me, who is concentrated on personal scores and stats have more reasons to hate errors. For me, errors are a sign of not knowing the material. They are a sign of not being able to buzz in at the right time. They show that you are unable to think through enough to process a right answer. To sum those all up in one sentence, errors are a sign of weakness.

Nobody likes being called weak. We want to be strong. Weak has such negative connotation. Errors aren't just a sign of weakness in quizzing. It's true in other sports. For example, errors in baseball mean that the fielder was unable to catch the ball as he should have. He was weak. But you don't need to be a sports player to make errors. Make an error in performing your job, you look weak to your boss. Make errors on a test or exam, you get a weak grade. With some medical examinations, if there are errors in your body's performance, you literally have a weak body. You make an error in meeting your buddy, it makes your friendship look weak. Errors make us look weak. We want to forgot our errors and totally avoid future ones.

It's uncommon to see people openly talk about their weaknesses, and it's rare to see them brag about them. Those who do seem crazy to us. How many times have you heard in prideful way, "I'm so lazy...I have bad work ethic...my GPA is less than 1.o...I am terrible at sports...I am so dumb...I have absolutely no musical talent..." etc. Yeah, you probably never hear these things in a bragging way. But 2 Corinthians 11:30 & 12:9 seems to say that's the right way to approach. It's just amazing alone that we are allowed to brag. The Bible commands us to not to boast because our boasting leads to pride, which is at the heart of all sin. Usually we boast about our talents and other things we are good at so we uplift ourselves. You can't do this with our weaknesses. Weaknesses expose our faults, which only destroy our image and pride. Jesus uses that for His own glory. He takes our weakness, and through His grace and power, turns the weakness completely the opposite way through into perfection. So when we praise Jesus for our weaknesses, we are also praising him for His power and grace that give us purpose.

Let's circle this back to quizzing. God has used errors to teach Spring City about humilty and pride, success and failure. The errors keep Spring City in check. Every time that we pray before we go into a match, we pray for God's favor to bless us. If we shown ourselves approved, God grants our prayer and gives us points and wins. Our coaches remind to humble ourselves or God will humble us in a not so pleasant way. God does that through errors. It is if God is saying, "I, the Lord God has given you those points. Now let me step back and show you how weak you are on your own." So God steps back and lets us try on own. No matter how we try, we error. We error, we lose points from those errors, we lose seats to error outs. When we boast about ourselves, God humbles us. When we humble ourselves and acknowledge Christ working in our weakness, Christ uplifts us.

The story that I am reminded of is an incident I had in 2006. I never really talked about because for me, weaknesses and errors are embarrassing and humiliating. I only reffered to it as my "incident" or my "accident", but you probably figured out what it is...an error out. It was my first error out. To me, an error out is the worse thing you can do to both yourself and your team. You stop yourself from quizzing, prevent another quizzer from taking your place, and bring your team halfway to losing points. I condemned anyone for getting an error out. Mine came in the second match of first week in 2006. See, the previous match before was probably my best of my career. I quizzed out on the first questions, all buzzes. I was on a roll and already heading for a perfect season. I was happy for what I did...almost too happy...pretty much prideful. If I wasn't prideful, I was dangerously close to getting there. So the Lord intervened and humbled me. I errored out. Reflecting back on that day, I finally realize that's exactly what the Lord was doing First, he was hhumbling me. Second, he was reminding me that every point and every quiz out was a gift from the Father. Apart fom Him, I am too weak to gain anything on my own.

With that in mind, I thank God every point, for every quiz out, for every win. They are not mine, they are the Lord's. I thank and praise God for four consecutive years on the Top 50 Quizzers List. Even to this day I praise and thank God for our team winning the 2005 ACC Tournament. Ah, yes, the 2005 ACC Tournament! What a perfect example! As a stated above, we reached 36 errors by the time we won that final match. How could that be? Look at 2 Corinthians 11:30 & 12:9. The Lord saw Spring City as excellent canidates for winning the ACC Tournament. But there was only one problem: we were too strong. It's kinda like Gideon. When Gideon brought the army and presented it to God, he said, "Too big. They'll think the won on their own merit. Shrink it down." We were good canidates for winning the whole tournament, but we were still strong enough that the team, as well as other teams, could say we earned it on our own. So the Lord reminded us that He was in control by weakening us with errors. Weakened and broken by our errors, we depended on God to take us into the playoffs, and through the playoffs, and He was faithful to the team. God used Spring City's weakeness for His glory.

So have I changed my philosophy on errors? Yes and no. No on the how; I still want to get as few errors as possible, hoping for none. Yes on the why, in the sense that I am now proud of my errors. My errors remind me that I cannot do this on my own and help me recognize that God is using me. So I boast about my errors. It is a sign that God is active in my life. So for my fellow quizzers, I say to you boast about errors! Now be careful, there's a wrong way to do it. It's wrong to brag about your errors to show how you you are, such as saying "I can error so much and still be on top!" This is a pride to yourself. Instead, boast about your errors in such that God gets the glory for your accomplishments. May this be the prayer of us quizzers...

*O LORD, may You be glorified in our correct buzz-ins, in our bonuses, and even our errors.*