Christianity Explored and the Olympics

Here's my magazine article for September:

“One Life. What's it all about?”

That's the strap line on the posters for the Christianity Explored course, which we'll be running again starting on Monday 5^th September. And it's a very important question - because how we answer that question has a huge bearing on how we live our lives.

I'm writing this at the middle of the Olympic Games and in interview after interview the medal winners talked about how their preparations for the last four years had been focussed on competing in these Games. Their whole lives; their daily routines, their food and drink, their social activities, their family lives had been dictated by the aim of doing the best that they could in their event. They had to ignore or avoid anything that would distract them from their goal and certainly not do anything that would make them unable to achieve their potential. And standing on the podium with an Olympic medal around their neck made all of those sacrifices worth it.

Olympic athletes are perhaps an extreme example but many people are similarly driven to achieve goals in their personal lives or careers and make similar sacrifices. On the other hand many people don't really have a clue where they're going or what they want to achieve and their lives are subsequently purposeless. So we need to ask ourselves the question of what our goals are and more importantly whether those goals are good ones.

Jesus said he came to bring us life in all its fullness, so when we're reassessing our own life goals one of the important factors to think about is if and where Jesus features in our lives. The Christianity Explored course gives the opportunity to discover who Jesus is, what he did and what that means for us by reading through and discussing Mark's gospel.

St Paul often uses the analogy of sport to describe what it's like to follow Jesus. He wrote “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 for ever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-26). Paul contrasts the fleeting and ephemeral nature of sporting prizes such as laurel leaves, titles, records etc. with the permanent prize of everlasting life promised to all who believe in Jesus and who live with him at the centre of their lives. And unlike Olympic gold, this everlasting prize is for all believers who run and complete the race, not just for those who come first.