Like many here in the UK I have been following the Rio Olympics. I can’t cope with the suspense of actually watching the competitions take place(!) but I enjoy hearing the news of our people gaining medals and looking at the award ceremonies.
The whole range of emotions is set before us. Some Olympians display unbounded delight and relief and pour out gratitude to all and sundry. Others are quieter and less intense, but still honoured to achieve what they have done.
More distressing is the sight of those who are disappointed for whatever reason. Some feel cheated and angry; others that they have let themselves and their supporters down. Still others seem bewildered by the runaway success of the competition in what they had regarded as “their” event.
In the eyes of most of us, simply being chosen to represent one’s country in the Olympics would be an unimaginable achievement. Yet all that is lost on those who have invested years of time and effort in an event of maybe only a few minutes’ or even seconds’ duration - and have come nowhere. Devastated, they speak of quitting the sport. Some may be persuaded to keep trying, and may succeed in the end.
It is common knowledge that the Olympics since 1896 are the modern equivalent of a contest that began in classical times. Less well known is the fact that ancient Olympians were at least as single-minded in their preparations as modern ones. Diet, exercise, lifestyle - all had to be tip-top for the athlete to compete at his best. Distractions could not, must not be allowed.
In the Bible, the apostle Paul harnesses this image in his description of the Christian life. There can be no such person as a part-time Christian.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV).
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything (2 Timothy 2:3-7).
“Remember Jesus Christ,” he adds, pointedly. Christ endured everything in the build-up to the cross at Calvary, and then on the cross itself. He won the crown. But what gave Him the greatest satisfaction was to see believers saved from sin by trusting in Him.
If we have died with him,
we will also live with him;
if we endure,
we will also reign with him;
if we deny him,
he also will deny us;
if we are faithless,
he remains faithful —
for he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:11-13).
So far, it may sound as though I have said too much about the place of your own efforts and not enough about the place of our Saviour in bringing us to heaven. Let me finish with the story of the little Caribbean lad who kept dropping behind in a running race. It seemed unlikely he would win. Suddenly his legs seemed to get going. He seemed to move faster and with great regularity. He passed all the rest of the field and won. Observers noticed that his lips were moving constantly and asked him what he had been whispering to himself as he ran. He replied that he had been praying, saying over and over again,
“Lord, you pick 'em up an’ I’ll put 'em down!”
Friday 19 August 2016
Friday 12 August 2016
Spiritual Blindness
It is an uncomfortable feeling that comes around every so often and worsens with age. People are watching me take my spectacles off and squint when reading, writing or looking at photos. They think to themselves, even if they make no comments out loud,
"Should've gone to … a certain well-known firm of opticians".
The optician (or optometrist, as we must now call some of them at least) has duly given me a new prescription. It prompts me to look up a passage from 2 Corinthians (4:3-6 ESV):
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I ponder afresh the two different types of blindness that Jesus and His followers identified: physical blindness and spiritual blindness.
Jesus saw His work as applying healing on both levels. He would sometimes perform miracles of giving sight to the blind. As He did so, He gave teaching about the need of the people for spiritual sight.
There is a widespread blindness to such things in our country now. We tend to believe only what we can see. Surely we should wake up to the fact that, even in the material realm, over 80% of our universe is said to be unseen (“Dark Matter” and “Dark Energy”).
I often think how spiritual blindness may be at work when people pass churches, some times daily for many years, and simply do not notice that they are there.
At times you might think this is understandable. Some churches simply do not look like churches. They may display no Christian symbol such as a cross. The building style may not make you think of ecclesiastical architecture, especially if the congregation is hiring a school or public building to meet in. If your idea of a church is a Gothic structure with a spire or a clock tower and pointed windows, by no means all churches look like that.
People should realise, of course, that church is not simply a building: it is the people that worship there. It is a pity if their publicly visible activities are permanently linked with the four walls of the building, as though they never related to anything outside.
It is always difficult to discern whether spiritual blindness is the fault of uninformed outside observers or of local Christians not having a high enough profile. In either case, the blindness in this country to the things of the spirit is profound and depressing.
If you talk about "spirituality" to people in the West, they may well think of Eastern meditation techniques or similar. These things may cultivate a more positive attitude to life, but they are certainly not the spirituality which glorifies God as the Lord Jesus intends. In less materially favoured countries the ordinary person is very much aware of the spiritual dimension. Their spirituality is vibrant and keen.
Jesus's plan in encouraging people to have their spiritual eyes open is that they should see God at work and glorify their heavenly Father. Most of all it is only through spiritual alertness that they can find and embrace true life which He offers – eternal life, life in which physical death is just a momentary blip.
May we go through life with our eyes open, seeing beyond the merely material to the place where life is eternal and abundant and where Jesus Christ is enthroned as King and Lord.
"Should've gone to … a certain well-known firm of opticians".
The optician (or optometrist, as we must now call some of them at least) has duly given me a new prescription. It prompts me to look up a passage from 2 Corinthians (4:3-6 ESV):
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I ponder afresh the two different types of blindness that Jesus and His followers identified: physical blindness and spiritual blindness.
Jesus saw His work as applying healing on both levels. He would sometimes perform miracles of giving sight to the blind. As He did so, He gave teaching about the need of the people for spiritual sight.
There is a widespread blindness to such things in our country now. We tend to believe only what we can see. Surely we should wake up to the fact that, even in the material realm, over 80% of our universe is said to be unseen (“Dark Matter” and “Dark Energy”).
I often think how spiritual blindness may be at work when people pass churches, some times daily for many years, and simply do not notice that they are there.
At times you might think this is understandable. Some churches simply do not look like churches. They may display no Christian symbol such as a cross. The building style may not make you think of ecclesiastical architecture, especially if the congregation is hiring a school or public building to meet in. If your idea of a church is a Gothic structure with a spire or a clock tower and pointed windows, by no means all churches look like that.
People should realise, of course, that church is not simply a building: it is the people that worship there. It is a pity if their publicly visible activities are permanently linked with the four walls of the building, as though they never related to anything outside.
It is always difficult to discern whether spiritual blindness is the fault of uninformed outside observers or of local Christians not having a high enough profile. In either case, the blindness in this country to the things of the spirit is profound and depressing.
If you talk about "spirituality" to people in the West, they may well think of Eastern meditation techniques or similar. These things may cultivate a more positive attitude to life, but they are certainly not the spirituality which glorifies God as the Lord Jesus intends. In less materially favoured countries the ordinary person is very much aware of the spiritual dimension. Their spirituality is vibrant and keen.
Jesus's plan in encouraging people to have their spiritual eyes open is that they should see God at work and glorify their heavenly Father. Most of all it is only through spiritual alertness that they can find and embrace true life which He offers – eternal life, life in which physical death is just a momentary blip.
May we go through life with our eyes open, seeing beyond the merely material to the place where life is eternal and abundant and where Jesus Christ is enthroned as King and Lord.
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