Like many of you, I have done my best to keep up with the Olympic stories of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Stories of brown running water, bad hotels, lost luggage, and so on. Amazing the things that happen in every Olympics, yet we make them huge press stories every 4 years.
This past week, my family was riveted by Shaun Whites pursuit of a third straight Gold Medal in the Half-Pipe in Snowboarding. Well, he didn’t make it. As a matter of hard-to-swallow-fact, he didn’t even bring home a medal. He finished fourth!
Now, that is not a bad finish for you and me, but for a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner, that probably didn’t sit so well. I wonder if we will see him in the 2018 Winter Games so that he can go out on his terms––on top!
As I thought of his story this week, the Lord dropped a stanza from a poem by C.T. Studd into my heart. Listen to this…
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,
If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.
Now I am all for National Pride and accomplishment in the Winter Games, don’t get me wrong. But let’s not forget that truly, the only things (success or failure) that really last, are the things that we do for Jesus!
Let’s keep winning gold for heaven!