Like millions of others around the world, I have been glued to the TV for the last couple of weeks watching the Olympic Games in London.
I love the drama of the competition and the athlete's stories. I am amazed at the focus and dedication of these men and women who spend years of their lives striving for the singular goal of winning an Olympic medal.
Sharing in their triumphs and disappointments strikes a deep chord within us, whether it is celebrating another spectacular win of a superstar like Usain Bolt or cheering the Saudi runner Sarah Attar, finishing dead last, but breaking new ground for women in her country.
These things touch us because, while few of us are competitive runners, we all have life experiences of striving toward a goal and dreaming about the prize at the end.
Life is full of challenge, disappointments, personal bests and occasional glory. Running a race is a
metaphor for life.
I meet many people who would describe their lives more as a treadmill than a race.
They are exhausted and bored at the same time, going through the motions of daily life but not feeling that they are getting anywhere.
They feel they have lost the excitement of the race and any sense of the goal - uncertain about the purpose of it all. Even athletes can feel this way after the big event is over. What comes next? Is there more?
I think the Olympic Games touch us because, whether we are conscious of it or not, they draw us into our own larger personal story.
What is it we are striving for? What does it mean to win in life? What prize are we hoping for at the end of it all?
The apostle Paul sometimes described his life in Christ as running a race.
He wrote "No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven."
Paul was elderly and in prison when he wrote those words, uncertain if he would be put to death, and yet in his spirit he pictured himself as a runner going for the gold.
Christ calls us off the treadmill (and off the couch) and into a life of purpose with the promise of glory at the finish line.
