Gold or Silver? Just Do Your Best

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

Pardon me if I rant for a minute. Can anyone tell me when it became a crime to win a silver medal instead of a gold one at the Olympics? When did it become necessary for a teenage girl to apologize for having a bad day and “costing” her teammates first place? Give me a break. Give her a break for that matter. Why can’t she be allowed to stand on that platform and be proud of her accomplishments? Why should she dissolve into tears and think about how she failed instead of how much she succeeded? Does it mean nothing that she rose above thousands and thousands of other gymnasts to make it to the Olympics? That she has trained since practically the day she learned to walk for this moment? That she sacrificed so much to get to Beijing? Everything in life is subjective. The same set of judges could watch the same routine on a different day and score it differently. It is a few hours of her entire life, and she should be celebrating! Not wishing she could do it over again. Can you tell I am fired up? Now, look at another athlete, Michael Phelps. I know he is not perfect, but somewhere someone helped him find some balance. Maybe it was his mother who said something along these lines (not an exact quote), when asked by reporters if her son was worried about whether he could win all those gold medals and break all those records; “He’s not worried. He never even thought about it until you (the media) put it in his head. You are the ones who are worried. He just goes out and swims.” Michael Phelps swims to beat himself. He races against time. If he wins a gold or silver or bronze in the process, that’s great. I am truly impressed that he swam a race and won even though his goggles were full of water and he could not see anything. Everything was a fog, but he just kept on swimming. He didn’t complain or ask the race to be restarted. He did what he came to do. Honestly, I am surprised some athlete has not used the “smog card” to excuse their performance. Do you think someone has thought, “It is no wonder all these Chinese keep winning, they are used to breathing this nasty air.” No, for the most part, when the media leaves them alone, our athletes, the world’s athletes, are going out and doing what they have trained to do and doing it to the best of their abilities. I have a little sign on my desk that says, “Just do your best.” I think that God calls us to be like the Apostle Paul or like Michael Phelps and push on towards whatever He has called us to do. Gold or no gold, I think, in the long run, He will be satisfied if we can just say, “I did my best.”