The eyes of the world focus on the Olympics every four years and it is truly one sporting event I have always enjoyed. As I watch the youthful, well trained athletes strive for perfection in their events, I am impressed by their dedication and self discipline. Maybe you are too. Their entire lives were modeled and shaped to conform around a dream that within a few hours, minutes, sometimes seconds, either would erupt into a star burst of reality or fade into oblivion.
What kind of discipline, what kind of motivation does it take to spend six to eight or more hours a day pushing your body to perform to perfection? Giving up the social life young people love, the food and drink – what drives them on?
Even the apostle Paul was inspired by the athletes in the ancient games of his day to write: (read I Corinthians 9:24-27).
Paul had the same dedication and discipline that we see in Olympic athletes but with a spiritual motivation, for a priceless, everlasting reward.
Perhaps he knew some of these athletes personally. He obviously understood their habits, their character. He knew they were temperate, careful not to eat or drink anything that would be harmful or to overindulge in food or drink. Nothing that slowed the mind or body was allowed.
To be the best you can be requires sacrifice of temporary pleasures. How well Paul knew that. Courage and confidence in the face of challenge don’t come from halfheartedly applying (or non-applying) yourself to the effort.
Paul realized that his body had to be kept under the control of his mind, which in turn had to be led by the power of God’s Spirit. A battle of a spiritually motivated mind over physically motivated matter.
Like the Olympic athletes, Paul knew that winning would take hours of hard work to accomplish. Hours of prayer, Bible study, occasional fasting and meditation on God’s laws to make sure he was being properly motivated by God’s Spirit.
And Paul knew, like the world class athletes, that inexorably tied in with properly preparing and disciplining his mind was the disciplining of his body. To endure the physical trails that Paul experienced took a healthy body – a strong heart and lungs, sturdy muscles that would carry him over miles of terrain.
And Paul practiced what he preached. He didn’t want to be eliminated from the race because he hadn’t daily put forth the effort in the training he knew was required to win.
Maybe you have seen a video clip from the 1984 Olympics of the women’s marathon.
Some 20 or 30minutes after the winner (Joan Benoit, USA) had finished the race a Swiss runner (Gaby Andersen-Scheiss) staggered into the stadium. The crowd and TV audience were shocked to see her careening unsteadily back and forth across the lanes. Suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion, paralysis had set in and she leaned precariously to one side, her left arm hanging limply as she struggled around the track.
Why didn’t someone stop her, the commentators wondered. But, seeing her courageous determination to finish the race, no one intervened. The crowd began to cheer. Stumbling on, she finally, after what seemed like an eternity, crossed the finish line to collapse and to be carried off the track.
What kept her going? In interviews later, she said even though she was suffering from blackouts, she remembered entering the arena and thinking that she didn’t want to quit; she had to finish. And finish she did, by pure will and determination.
Even though the woman had trained her mind and body well, she had misjudged how much the southern California heat would affect her. We should be sure we are taking in enough water, God’s Spirit, to be able to endure and finish our race. It’s going to be a lot tougher than we think. There are going to be obstacles we don’t expect.
Let’s look at ourselves. How are we doing? Are we preparing for the really tough part of the race ahead of us – physically, mentally and especially spiritually? Ready or not, we’re going to have to run it. Read Hebrews 12:1.
Let’s be ready. Get rid of the wrong habits and sins that hold us back, be filled with God’s Spirit – and run to win.
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