Olympics

Guess it had to be done - a blog with the title “Olympics”. So, here it is. I do really like the Olympics. Well some of it. I love the athletics, which in my increasingly old mind is what “Olympics” really means! And my favourite athlete of all time is Daley Thompson. To win consecutive gold medals in the Decathlon is, in my opinion, the greatest achievement. But even as I write that I have some reservations. It’s not that what Daley Thompson achieved isn’t fantastic. It is. Or that others achieve great things (in all the various sports now part of the Olympics). Part of the human psyche it seems is the drive to achieve which has, in many ways, served the human race well. What I find challenging is the idea that to win is everything. Because, it isn’t. Is it? Maybe it touches on something deep inside of me - the truth that I was never a winner in that way. I always finished third in the high jump! And wherever I go, and whatever I do, there’s always someone better than me. And my mother would always ask me if I was beaten, not, did you win? Maybe I’m scared! Maybe. It was lovely yesterday, when Adam Peaty finished second in the 100m Breast Stroke final, to hear him say he’d already won regardless of where he finished in the race. What was fascinating about that was the BBC had put lots of work into reminding us that he stood on the edge of real greatness, because if he won, he’d be only the second swimmer to win gold at three Olympics! Only if you win it seems! One of the commentators drew a contrast between the way Peaty responded to the other medalists, particularly the gold medal winner, whom he congratulated warmly, and the way many of the England football team took off their silver medals when they were beaten by Spain in the final of the 2024 Euros. It’s always disappointed me that they do that. And here’s why: it seems to me that we choose to believe that we are something less if we don’t win. There’s nothing wrong with winning, it’s the nature of competition that someone will win. But if that is then a declaration of someone’s worth or value, it’s become something else. I know that Paul said we should run our race as if to win (I Cor. 9 v 24), but I’m not sure he means that we find our worth in wining in that way. He means to do our best to live well in the light of what we know about God and his great love for us. He doesn’t mean that God will only be interested in us, or that we will only have value in God’s eyes, if we somehow win, or beat everyone else. It’s not about me being better than you. That’s not the Gospel. The Gospel is that I am already enough. No, really: that I am already enough. I don’t have to do anything to be loved and valued by God. I want to live well and do better at living in that truth. I want follow what I know of God’s love for me and do better at living in the truth of that. And the truth is that however well, or badly, I do at that, nothing can separate me from God’s great love. Which means I can run to win in the freedom of God’s magnificent love, knowing I’m already enough. And so can you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some more of the Olympics to watch.