The Olympic Spirit

Once again I find myself captivated by the Olympic Games. There is something about seeing representatives from 200+ countries (and this year a team of refugees) all together in one place that makes me think of how wonderfully varied our world is, and how amazing it is that people can be drawn together in this way. What has particularly stood out to me this year is the competitors talking about the years of hard work and sacrifice that have gone into getting them ready. Some have spoken about training towards this moment for 8 years or more. And it got me thinking about what qualities the medal winners have that make them the best in the world. I am sure you can probably think of your own list, but these are some that have struck me, and that encourage me to think about my own journey of faith.

• They know what they are good at and they train to get better at it – one of the women’s judo champions had tried 5 different sports before she settled on judo, but once she did that and focused on her training she has become the best! We are all good at something, but it is often hard not to compare ourselves with others and to want to be good at something different. But it is important to value the gift(s) that we have and to develop them, that way we make the contribution that is uniquely ours to make. Romans 12.4-8 talks about how we each offer a different gift and encourages us to use them well.
• They persevere – the GB team pursuit cyclists talked about how they hadn’t won any competitions in the last 4 years, but they kept going, working on changing and improving the smallest things, even removing their rings when they cycled, training long days and even through holidays. They won the gold in a tense final that saw them behind until a last huge effort pushed them into the winning time. 2 Peter 1.5-7 says make every effort to add to your faith, and one of the things to add is perseverance. Life and faith are not straightforward and the ability to keep going through the tough times, to keep trusting in the goodness of God can be a huge challenge. We need to encourage each other to keep going, to persevere.
• They fix their eyes on the goal – winning a medal at the Olympics dominates the thinking of the competitors for years. Mo Farah talks about dreaming as a child about winning an Olympic medal, he won nothing in 2008, another 4 years of training led to great success in London 2012, but his eyes had been fixed on the medal for a long time. Hebrews 12.2-3 talks about fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Considering all Jesus has done for us helps us not to grow weary and lose heart.

Sixteen

So...today's my sixteenth birthday! Well, sixteenth Christian birthday :-) 13th March 2000 was the day I became a Christian and in some ways it seems like yesterday. At the time it seemed quite a dramatic change, but it is interesting to reflect back over the years before that, and the significant moments on a journey towards (and at times away from) faith. I liked going to church as a child and particularly being allowed to do the readings now and then in the services, and I definitely had some sort of spiritual encounter during my confirmation, but my main memory is the huge internal conflict that being a Sunday Anglican in a Monday to Friday Catholic school introduced. The actions of Christians made me think God was a hypocrite, and along with normal teenage angst it made me dismiss belief in God, although I kept almost unconsciously testing whether God was there over the years.


Starting my first job as a new graduate was a turning point for me, and working next to and becoming good friends with Adrian who was a committed Christian. The next 6 years were marked by many, many discussions about God and faith, and going along to occasional Christian things with Adrian and his wife Ruth. I don't know who was more surprised, them or me, that I finally accepted their invitation to church in August 1999. I had just driven to France to watch the total eclipse which had had a profound impact on me, and caused me to really wonder if life and the universe really was an accident of nature. I really didn't like their church and swore I wouldn't go back, and yet the following week woke up with a desperate desire to go to church! I went and cried all the way through the service which quite alarmed me. Cue 8 months of reading Christian books, doing an Alpha course and asking never-ending questions, trying to get to the point that no-one in the last 2000 years has managed, to rationally prove that God was real.


There were so many significant points in those few months, but the simple challenge of a young girl from church, who said 'God says let your barriers down' was enough to trigger a willingness to believe God might exist. And that was enough space for the love of God to pour in with a weight of absolute certainty that God was real. It is a strange experience to suddenly feel like you are known intimately and accepted totally. That there is someone who not only can forgive everything you have done wrong but wants to forgive you and has already shown how much they love you. That immediate conviction that I must respond with everything in me has not left me in the last 16 years, and has deepened and filled out in extraordinary ways. The nature of faith is that it is rarely 100% certain, but the faithfulness of God towards me is constant and unchanging. So I am so grateful to be able to say with more assurance than ever that 'the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me' (Gal 2.20).




Photo Credit: SaraElizabethCakes

Journal

Time has come to start a new journal, and here it is! Journalling was a spiritual habit I picked up from my friends who were very key in my journey to becoming a Christian and from those who discipled me in the early days of taking baby steps in faith. I'm really glad I stuck to it as well! I'm not consistent in when I write, sometimes a few times a week, other times a few weeks can go by, although I usually like to take notes during sermons. I haven't counted how many journals I have now piled up at home but it is quite a few across the 16 years.

Journalling really helps me process what I feel God has been saying. I like writing about the good things that have happened as well as the challenges I am wrestling with, and around the new year and around my birthday I like to read back over the past year of entries and take stock of the general flow of my life. It helps me orient myself and not lose track of significant words that have been spoken. So here I am with a whole book of blank pages before me...lots is going to happen over the next few months and I'm excited about the journey that is going to appear on these pages. Life following Jesus is never dull!