Go For the Gold!

The winter Olympics just recently ended at the time of this writing. I watched as athletes from all over the world completed for their country. They will train constantly, trying to get their body into the best possible condition. That is the goal of each athlete: to perform the absolute best that they can, with the goal of acheiving the gold medal.

That is the attitude that we as Christians need to have when it comes to our faith. We need to strive to be the best that we can for God. We need to strive for perfection.

As I was writing this example about the Olympics, I remembered a conversation between two men, one a younger man and the other a bit older. The younger man obviously held the older man in high respect, because he said, “I hope someday I can be as good as you.” To which the older man replied, “Don’t be me. Be better than me.” The older gentleman wanted him to be the best that he could. Not to stop at the bar that the older man had set, but to push even farther, exceeding everything that he had ever done. To be the best ever.

Too many people only do the least amount that they have to, without pushing themselves to their full potential. They do just enough to pass, and then quit. But the Apostle Paul did not have this kind of attitude. He never thought himself to be perfect, but strove towards the bar that Christ had set.

Philippians 3:12-14  “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Do you see how Paul lived his life? Paul forgot all of those things that he had accomplished and attained, and instead continued to push himself to do even more. To continue to become even better, and to serve God to the best of his ability. When Paul went somewhere and started a church, he didn’t stop there. He went somewhere else, found some new believers for Christ, and did it all over again. He had a gift and he used it to the full extent.

You know, it is usually just after someone falls just short of doing something completely flawless that they look back and ask themselves, “Why couldn’t I have just pushed myself a little more?” Or “Why didn’t I just try a little harder?” 

We have one shot at life on the Earth. One shot to show the Lord how much you love Him.

Don’t settle for “good enough.” Don’t settle for a silver. Go for the gold! 

In Christ,

Andrew