He won the gold medal in one of the most riveting events in the Beijing Games (I still remember watching it on TV and cheering for him and his teammates in the extremely close competition). Before I went to his talk, I had read that he was training for the Olympics while battling a chronic illness. Since I did not know about his illness, I was curious to hear his story.
As the Olympian spoke, we could sense his passion for his sport, and it was great to hear how he overcame his struggle with his illness and how he desired to help others with a similar medical condition.
About halfway through his speech, however, he talked about his favorite philosopher. In his lead-up to it, he mentioned that former President George W. Bush proclaimed in his presidential campaign that his "favorite philosopher was God." Then he looked down, paused for a few seconds, and said "whatever," in a rather mocking fashion.
At the end of the event, he shared with us his gold medal that was the highest honor in his sport, his award for all the hard work he had put in, the years of sacrifice he had made, and for his steller performance.
Having heard how he has strived towards his most important prize and having seen his beautiful medal right in front of my eyes, I wonder to myself: what prize am I pursuing? Am I going after an earthly prize or am I after something eternal? Am I going after the prize - the crown - as vigorously and passionately as he was his prize?
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
- 1 Corinthians 9: 24-25
No comments:
Post a Comment