Amidst great gala and gay, the colorful 17-day Olympic festival of sports Olympic has been kicked off. As the creative genius Danny Boyle turned Olympic Stadium into a jukebox, the whole world has just witnessed the great inauguration ceremonies that marked the beginning of the historical event. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s beloved 86-year-old monarch, parachuted into the stadium, amidst the cranking up world-beating rock from the Beatles. With the words of the Queen, “I declare open the games of London, celebrating the 30th Olympiad of the modern era,” the greatest world sports have begun in London.
Olympic reminds us that life is a sport
Life that we live, in fact, is a sport. It is not a mere game. Life has rules, regulations, codes of ethics, proper behavior, etc, as all sports have. Both in sport and life we need to do a lot of hard work with determination. In sport and life, we feel good when we are ahead of others and we feel depressed and lost when we are behind others. We need guides, coaches, teachers and others to train and guide us properly towards our goal in life and sport. In both life and in sport, there are always chances that decide our success in reaching our goals.
Our life-race towards a goal
God created us to live on this earth happily and reach Him after the race of life on this earth. As St. Paul points out we all run in the race for the imperishable gold of heavenly reward. To win the race we have to live a focused living with a rigorous training in the life of moral values like athletes who run for victory. Athletes run, not aimlessly but with their eyes focused on the prize. They try their best to win. We should also try our best to win our life-race.
St.Paul on the race of life
Remember the words of St Paul, “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. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:24-27)
We should also run the race of life and be able to say like St. Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Our life on this earthly Olympiad should prepare us for our eternal reward. The global response to this great event should enable us think of our life’s priorities. God’s grace is always with us encouraging us to run in the right track towards our goal. Let us run together, with the grace of God, for the imperishable gold of our heavenly reward.
Read more articles by ThresiaPaulose varghese or search for articles on the same topic or others.
