Why am I sitting here watching Olympic figure skating with tears rolling down my cheeks? I don’t even know these people. But the beauty, grace and skill that they exhibit touches the heart like a tropical sunset or the majestic Rocky mountains or the multi-hued blue waving ocean. The skaters make this dance look so easy, so graceful, so fluid. Yet you know deep down in your heart that these aren’t just skaters, they are athletes that have trained with every ounce of valor, courage, perseverance. passion and discipline they could squeeze out of their human selves to attain this level of athletic inspiration and perfection. You can almost see their souls and they are beautiful.
What is it about the Olympics that touches our hearts so? As I watch the inspirational commercials over and over – commercials put together with brilliance just for these games – of how many of these athletes have overcome affliction, injuries, near death, death of loved ones, bullying, broken relationships, financial constraints – such as is common to mankind and yet they pressed on to get to the Olympics.
This well known quote from Paul comes to mind…. ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete should use self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself my be disqualified” 1 Cor. 9:24-27.
The athletes in these Olympics and their stories make us believe in the strength and resilience of the human spirit. These athletes (ordinary people) serve to remind us of what we can do. We have mostly been born with the same physiological make up. Some have handicaps that will never allow them to compete and excel in the physical realm. But most of us that have been blessed with the complete package have the basic ingredients to achieve our best. What stops us? Our best may not be Olympic level but that’s OK. These are just ordinary people that have pressed themselves to do their best. The Olympics are not for cowards that’s for sure or people with a victim mentality. They are for people with a hope and a future. People that dare to believe they could be better and that they could attain something higher. These people (mostly very young) are not sitting a home feeling sorry for themselves and giving up on life. They have seen an ounce of skill in themselves and a love for what they are doing and have determined to make themselves the best they can be. Everyone laughs at the athlete that says “I’m just so grateful to even get to the Olympics – it doesn’t even matter if I win a medal”. Seriously, I am with them. Because yes they did have to reach a certain, unattainable level for most of us, just to get in the door and that in itself is, indeed, a victory. No lie.
I’m 60 and there is no way in heaven or hell that I will ever be in the Olympics….certainly not the athletic Olympics. Maybe if they invented a cooking, baking, decorating, event planning Olympics, I could compete. And yet, as I watch these young athletes I have to wonder why I am finding it so difficult to get my derriere off the couch and out on the street for a healthy dose of walking, or to the basement for an inspirational session of yoga, or even lift a few weights that line the walls of my studio. (They are not just there for stubbing my toes on, are they?) It’s not for lack of time or equipment or environment. Why don’t I eat the food that I know is medicine for my body and why do I eat the poison? Why am I not responding to every single posting for every single position that I even remotely qualify for and letting God do the rest? I’m disqualifying myself before I even get started. Why have the cleaning supplies been sitting in my bathtub for three weeks and yet no rag or cleaning solution has made contact with any porcelain surfaces yet? However, I am OCD enough not to leave the house without making my bed. What’s that all about? I have victimized myself and then I watch the Olympics and am reminded that I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength. Instead I believe the lie that I can’t…why? Because its easier?? It’s certainly not inspirational or motivating or satisfying or fulfilling or victorious. I want to train as an athlete to live the victorious life. I want this to be my mantra. “Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own….But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goad for the prize of the upward call of Jesus.”
Hebrews 12:1-1 says it aptly, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles (and the self pity) and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
And I well know that they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk (and do yoga) and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
How about these nuggets of wisdom?
2 Timothy 2:5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Galations 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
I think we see, in the Olympics, spiritual disciplines and principles at work and that is why we are so fascinated and inspired by them. Many of these athletes, without even realizing it, have dug deep and grasped hold of these spiritual truths and applied them to their discipline (sport) and THAT is the thing that is inspiring us. That is the thing that is touching our hearts. That is the thing that makes us cheer them on. We all have a void inside that can only be filled with God and His truth and that void is soaking up all of this amazing inspiration and example and storing it in our hearts, reminding us that we, too, can do ALL things through Christ. We can. Will we?
Let not just get inspired. Lets go to action. Let’s run the race marked out for us and get the gold (eternity with HIM).
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. I Timothy 4:8
The Red Plaid Apron 