This week, the world has been enjoying the sights at Rio, with the events at the 2016 Olympic games entering into its final moments. The joys of seeing Mo Farah run, stumble and fall, get back up and run on to win his race. The delights of watching the amazing moves of USA gymnast 19 year old Simone Biles, in the Women’s floor exercise, as she tops the medals board, winning four gold medals for her country in a single Olympic games. And finally, to mention the Jamaican Usain Bolt, the amazing runner, now deemed the fastest man on earth in a generation, having now won 3 gold medals in each of the last 3 Olympics, the only person to have ever done so in history.
In this Olympics, we’ve seen falls, stumbles, upsets, and disqualifications but no matter what challenges Olympians face, they are determined, having undergone years of training for this moment in time. There were many incidents for celebration, but I wish to focus on one specific race that stunned the audience and millions around the world as they watched the 400m women’s race. The 22 year old Bahamian runner Shaunae Miller had promised her trainer that she would do all she could to bring home the gold medal. That she did, when inches away from the winning line, having led for most of the race, she was over taken by the American Allyson Felix. Felix was then set on winning a fifth Olympic gold, but was denied, when Miller ‘dived’ resulting in her torso crossing the winning line before Miller. Miller’s win was well within the rules.
1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul writes that we should ‘Run in such a way that you may win’. He encourages us that we are not running against each other, like those in the Olympics, but we run against ourselves. We run. We win. Or we lose. It is up to us to determine the outcome. We can stay focussed. We must do all that we can in order to win. Overcoming distractions. Overcoming hurdles. Overcoming entanglement. Overcoming others. Whatever comes our way – being determined to reach that goal and obtain the gold.
The question is, what will we do to win? Usain Bolt said ‘I remember once, the first race I ran actually, I fell’. Let’s all take a moment and imagine if Bolt had felt discouraged enough to give up and not take this any further. Having thought about that, now realise that you too may fall, but you can and will make it with determination.
Now get up and run…to WIN!