Back to my thoughts regarding the Olympics, we often remember the great performance of the medalists, and specially those big winners like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. They had great performance on Beijing 2008, and it is natural for everyone to put their attention of them for London 2012 expecting similar performances.
It is easy to get caught up on the winning and achievements that we often forget the long hours of training, hard work, and discipline that these athletes had to endure in order to perform to such levels. To add, there is the dealing with expectations and nervousness. The fact that Olympics athletes are there participating is already a big achievement since they had to go through rounds of elimination in order to get there.
But it is nice to witness the big achievements that some of the athletes can accomplish.
In a similar way, I sometimes dream about accomplishing big things for God in the ministry I am involved with, whether it is CCF committee, cell group leader, ministry leader, bible study leader, etc. There is an earnest desire to do it for the glory of God, but it is easy to get caught up in wanting to achieve the big things and get frustrated when we're not able to get there. Because it is easy to overlook the hard work and discipline that will prepare us for these big things.
A few good brothers gave me as a present (when I was 2nd year) the book "Spirit of the Disciplines" (by Dallas Willard), and in one instance it mentions that many Christians want to see big things happening in their lives, to imitate what Jesus did, and other prophets (like Moses). But one has to realize that it is not an everyday thing when we will witness these big victories, but that it takes also ardent training on our part so that we can be ready when God calls us for such big battles. Jesus waited until he was thirty before His ministry on earth, and Moses spent 40 years training before leading the Israel out of Egypt.
Hence, there should be more motivation on my part to practice spiritual discipline in studying more the Word of God, memorizing Scripture, praying unceasingly, fasting, frugality so that I can be better prepared when God calls me for His Kingdom work.
We see Usain Bolt running the 100m in 9.63s establishing a new Olympic record, and it was one of the most watched event in the Olympics. But there were tons of hours of hard training that he had to endure to get in the podium!
On a separate note, Guatemala never won a medal before. They had a boxer that reached the bronze medal match 20 years ago, but was not able to win. Until London 2012, when a Guatemalan athlete was able to win a silver medal on 20km walk by Erick Barrondo. Fruits of his hard work, and this is the celebration, Enhorabuena!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOG4t-3XAoA
No comments:
Post a Comment