Olympic Reflections

I was watching badminton today. Why is it that the only time it is ever fun to watch badminton is when its the Olympics? And even that feels a little weird. Did you see the Tai-Chi master's at the opening ceremony? That was impressive. Very beautiful.

The apostle Paul said: "Run the race so as to win the prize." The Olympics are a good time to reflect on that.

Are you running your life so as to win the prize after death? Or are you running in life (running your life) so as not to face death abd what comes after--the judgment?

Are you running in such a way as to win or are you coasting?

Phelps, the swimmer, wants several medals. Are you settling for a bronze as a Christian believer? Be a bronze husband? A bronze wife. A bronze in prayer. A silver in Bible. Not quite medal in evangelism. Maybe grab a gold in church leadership. Hmmmm.....

Funny too how we exalt certain gift-ings in the church: Like swimming and Phelps is to preaching and Piper. But who cares about the Badminton players: the servers, the helpers, the intercessors. If your thing is badminton in the church--the unpopular gifting--do it well! It is amazing to watch a person play there part well no matter what it is.

Olympics: glory and sweat. I like glory but don't like sweat: the pain, the panting, the side-aches, the pulled muscles.

It is good to know that the race has been ran. Jesus won. We are called to run the same route he already did knowing that the successes along the way are because of him and failures are forgiven by Him. We are also called to run knowing that many on the sidelines are cheering: a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before.

Abraham, the man of faith is calling you faith.

Joshua, the man of courage is calling you to courage, and Deborah, the woman of courage is calling you to the same.

Samson, in many ways a failure in many areas of life is calling you to rise and finish. You can be considered faithful even after a pattern of faithlessness--Samson shows us this.

There are many more.

The Olympics should remind us that Jesus is the champion that has defeated death, sin, and Satan (See the book of Hebrews not Carman) and gone before us, and others have ran in front of us and finished well; therefore run like an Olympian not like a lazy American that only sits and watches others do the running and get the glory.