Enjoy your race!

Citius altius fortius (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a worldwide phenomenon. Every four years, the world pauses and holds its collective breath while the Olympic Games take place. Staggered so they occur two years apart, the summer and winter games feature the finest athletes in the world competing in well-known sports such as running, skiing, basketball, and gymnastics, as well as comparatively unknown events such as curling and the triple jump. 

The athletes come from virtually every nation on the face of the earth, a vast, magnificent display of humanity in all its diversity: different skin colors, different languages, different dress styles, and different lifestyles. But despite their differences, these national representatives have much in common as they enter the stadium and gather under the Olympic banner with its five interlocking rings representing unity among the nations of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. 

They all stand together and take the Olympic oath, pledging to uphold the highest ideals of sportsmanship. They all strive to attain the Olympic ideal: Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter , Higher , Stronger). And they all put their years of training and preparation to the utmost test, going head to head against their fellow competitors. 

Being a Christian is not an acquired skill or discipline like diving or ice skating. It is a living, vital relationship with the God of the universe, a relationship that begins when a person becomes a new creation in Him and receives Jesus as Lord by faith. 

But like Olympic athletes, Christians are called upon to train, to make sacrifices, and to embrace certain disciplines in order to give God “our utmost for His highest.” This book deals with five of those disciplines: Bible study, prayer , worship, service, and stewardship. 

Just as Olympic athletes work hard to achieve their best performances, our diligence in attending to these aspects of the Christian life will help determine our effectiveness in serving our Lord. Olympians sweat and sacrifice for years and sometimes decades for the chance to compete and, hopefully, win a medal and hear the applause of fans the world over . This stands as a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a select few gifted and dedicated men and women. God’s people likely will not receive the world’s adulation, but we will someday hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. (1 Cor. 9:24–25)

Enjoy your race.