Olympic Prospects?

I love the Olympics. I love the idea of people gathering from all over the world for a common purpose. These athletes have been disciplined, they have been focused and they have trained so well that they make the delivery of such tasks look easy, even doable by the average Joe like me sitting on my couch watching from my TV. I think a lot of viewers are curious about which event we might be able to “do” if given the proper training. It’s inspiring and we all want to be there. But let’s face it: very few people ever actually make it to the Olympics. So, is there no hope for someone like me to travel the world for an amazing cause?     

Walking in to the large auditorium there were about 6,000 people already there. It was New Year’s Eve and we had each come from all different directions to be there to ring in the New Year together. The program had already begun as the band on the stage led the crowd in a familiar song but this version was unique from any other time I had heard it.

Finding a seat wasn’t as bad as you might think. We were each assigned to a specific seating area depending on where we had come from. I sat with the 10 people I had traveled with and a few hundred more. We all had one thing in common: we were American. The person on the end of my row was waving the stars and striped flag as we sang out the song. We felt like a tight knit group, sharing specific uniformities and commonalities because we had all come from the same place.

Yet when I stood up on my chair my vantage point changed. We were only one small piece of the vast collection of people celebrating. I could see out across the entire venue loads of flags waving and voices crying out… not in English but in the language native to each people group. The clusters of individuals were singing with gusto and pride as they represented their country, their families and their nation’s language.  

It was a real life masterpiece of colors and languages, cultures and nationalities that gathered together for one unifying reason. It was not to compete. It was not to prove who was the best. It was not to make a name for ourselves. Thousands of people had gathered in Amsterdam for the purpose of worshiping the Only True God as a single body of believers. We were each given the opportunity to join together as “One body” to learn, grow and worship the Lord together. We all left changed. We all left winners.

There is nothing wrong with the Olympics but the reality is that we do not all have any real prospect of going. However, we are all given the same opportunity to open our hearts and join a team led by the Creator of the Universe, taking on a uniform to represent Him in all we do. We may not be gold medal winners but can live our lives with God as our coach, cheering us on to do our best and helping us when we cannot.  And some day we will be a part of the heavenly choir declaring with one voice the anthem that Jesus is Lord!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11