Olympic Dedication

When I was little, I remember watching Peggy Fleming compete in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. It is the first memory of the Olympics that I have. A few weeks later, I remember my Dad taking me to an ice skating rink—my first time on skates—and I was a failure as an ice skater. I could barely stand on the skates off the ice, let alone on the ice. How did Peggy Fleming do it—the jumps, the spins, skating backwards?

It was years later that I came to understand the dedication it takes to become an Olympic athlete—the hours of practice, the personal sacrifices, the focus that these incredible athletes must have to keep at it even when they lose, even when they fail. Peggy Fleming was born with some natural talent, no doubt, but those natural abilities did not take her to the Olympics. She worked at it.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1,2). And Bible scholars think that the image was of ancient games, maybe something like the Olympics, only the point was not about athletics, it was about life. Life is race. In order to get anywhere, it requires dedication, focus, even sacrifice. There will be losses and failures, stumbles and slips along the way, but the question is what kind of life are you leading?  What purpose, what goal are you working to achieve? 

--Pastor Don Steele