Are you playing to an audience of one?

I love skiing, the snow, the mountains, the whole deal. I watched a little of the winter Olympics on TV, held in Torino Italy. As I watched the different disciplines unfold on my TV screen, I saw the grace, power and poise required to even compete let alone win. I’ve always thought that taking part in sport and winning require so much more than just physical ability. It requires heart, discipline and most of all character. One event that stood out, was the ‘board cross’.

If someone wanted to invent a sport that was good for spectators and competitors alike; this is it! If you haven’t seen it, four snow boarders start in line and then race down a slope, there are jumps and turns that ensure that the race is often an ever changing and interesting spectacle. It’s really obvious what’s going on and who’s winning. It’s very easy for the audience.

One the races that stood out for all sorts of reasons was the women’s board cross final. The American was 50m up at the last bend, the medals were sorted, there had already been drama, but the result was decided. The commentator was running through the order confident that it was a result. The American was so far out in front and so confident that she began to play to the crowd and cameras. She decided not just to take the last jump as fast as she could, but to ‘pull a trick’ as she soared through the air, just to show how cool she was and presumably to celebrate her victory.

Her show boating was to cost her dearly, she fell on landing, whilst doing a trick that was entirely unnecessary, but that she thought a good idea at the time.

The gold had been won, but she took her eye of the prized gold medal that she had worked so hard for all her sporting life and slipped and fell. The Swiss girl who had been behind, swept through to win. The ‘keep going’ attitude and determination to do her best had paid off and she will be remembered as the gold medal winner who kept going until the very end.

What made the Swiss girl keep pushing so that she was in a position to finish the race and win the prize? Character; is the answer that I came up with, physically the two of them were probably not a great deal different. They both wore the best equipment that money could buy, the snow suit, the boots, the helmet and goggles. But, it was what lay beneath that really mattered, the character, the decisions and the choices that we make away from the crowds and the cameras.

The word character is almost indefinable. Ask people to define it and most will describe a person or person that they admire and who consistently do not only the right thing, but actually doing what they said they were going to do.

In the Bible, Paul writes to a church in Corinth: in the culture of the day the athlete was highly regarded for his discipline. Paul gave some good advice that the American snow boarder should have listened to:

Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.

Then again Paul mentions this in his letter to the Roman church: Romans 5:4

“And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.”

I’ve won a few earthly prizes, medals, trophies and such like but I threw most of them away in the bin the other day, they’re worthless, pleasing at the time but I want to please God a lot more than please myself or others now. I value the character that taking part, training and competing gave me and still does, I enjoyed the success at the time but compared to living a life that God wants me to lead, its worthless.

How do we develop character?

1. Don’t run from the hard times, they may be difficult but they develop our character, so you will need support.

2. Find an honest friend; you will never do it on your own! Be really straight with each other, develop character in each other.

Next time you’re taking part in sport or playing to the crowd in life; or even if you’re ‘on your own’ have a think, I believe that our lives are really being played out before an audience of one. God is our real audience; we will be accountable to him. Jesus never stops wanting to cheer us on and hoping that we can be ‘good and faithful servants’.