DEVOTION: The Race for an Eternal Prize ~ by Narelle Atkins

1 Corinthians 9:24-27: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets 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 forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

In early August, talk in the Australian media included commentaries discussing why the Australian Olympic team had only won 1 gold medal. (They went on to win 7 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze). In 2008 the Aussies won 14 gold and in 2004, 17 gold. Expectations were high that the Aussie team would again bring home a large number of gold medals.

Aussie swimmer James Magnuson came one hundredth of a second away from winning gold in the Mens 100m freestyle swimming final. Heartbreakingly close to a gold medal but not close enough. Winning an Olympic silver medal is an outstanding achievement and I offer my congratulations to all the competitors who have given their best and won medals at the London Games.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in Greece was written around 55 A.D. Chapter nine includes a sporting analogy the people of Corinth could identify with because their cultural heritage included the Ancient Olympic Games. The Ancient Olympics were believed to have been held for the first time in 776 BC and continued for centuries before being abolished in 393 A.D. by Emperor Theodosius who banned pagan cults. The Ancient Olympics were linked to religious festivals for the Greek god Zeus, the ruler of Olympus.

Paul uses the analogy of a runner to explain self discipline in the Christian life. Althletes undergo years of rigorous training to prepare for the Olympic Games. They make sacrifices in order to focus on achieving their Olympic dream. And unless there is a tie, only one winner will receive the prized gold medal. Four years later athletes will compete in a new race for gold. New champions will arise and previous world records will be broken as athletes strive for excellence in their chosen sport.

Paul encourages us to have purpose in the way we live our life and to look forward to receiving the prize of eternal life. There is no heartbreaking second place because we all have the opportunity to receive the eternal prize. But Paul does caution us to be aware that we can disqualify ourselves if we don’t run the race to the end and have faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Will you finish the race and receive the crown that will last forever?

Narelle Atkins writes contemporary inspirational romance and lives in Canberra, Australia.

She has published Bible Studies on Smashwords and blogs regularly at http://30MinuteBibleStudies.wordpress.com

She is a co-founder of the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance (ACRBA) http://acrba.blogspot.com

To learn more about Narelle, please visit her website.

Going for Gold

Living in London, in the months and weeks leading up to the start of the Olympics, I was privy to the general sentiments which mainly consisted of complaints about how crowded the city would get and how the transportation system would not be able to cope with the volume of travellers.

About a month or so before the games started I noticed that a lot of the people I walked passed on the street were conversing in French, Spanish, Polish, German, etc., and hardly any English. It felt like I was living in a multi-lingual familiar, but foreign country. I must admit I was somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing. And not the least because some roads were closed, some lanes were made unavailable to all but the Olympic teams and workers, and access to some tube stations were positively stuffed to the gills and others operating only one-way traffic.

So I decided to pretend that the Olympics wasn’t happening. It's not like I even considered going to the games. I mean, who could afford the few tickets they made available to the public, anyway?

But as July 27 approached (from my perspective anyway), there was a distinctive shift in the collective mood. There was excitement in the air. Apart from the swell of foreign visitors, a lot of people came into the city from other parts of the UK. The day before the Opening Ceremonies I started a contract with one of the biggest corporate sponsors of the games. I couldn’t avoid the excitement even I wanted to. A large number of my colleagues were volunteering at the Games and pictures of various athletes were plastered all over the building. I even got to take a few pictures with the Olympic torch. I was so proud of my country, and that pride grew as the days went on and Team GB started raking in the medals!

Things quietened down a bit after the closing ceremonies, Olympic lanes were closed and travelling restrictions were removed, and we all realised that it really wasn’t half as bad or complicated as most of us expected.

Now that the Paralympics have begun, I along with many others, I’m sure, have a tremendous amount of admiration for the athletes, who have overcome obstacles (many, I'm sure are unthinkable to most of us) to get where they are. There is so much that can be said for these special people but I won’t belabour that point. What I will say is that there is some much we can learn about tenacity from them. What I'm about to say is not any particular person’s story, but is in parts, applicable to many. Try to imagine being physically fit and able and having a dream to compete in your chosen field, and then by some unfortunate event(s) or a set of unforeseen circumstances, you lose a limb. Understandably you may feel that your dream will never be realised or that your life is over. It takes a certain mind-set to refuse to give in; to go through the agony of treatment and physiotherapy; to go through the expense (or through many doors, some open, some shut, to find the finances) to get the tools needed to make you able to think about competing and then going through extensive and intensive training. And of course, none of this happens overnight.

Those of us who post to this blog and a lot of people who subscribe to it are at various points in our writing journeys. We also, all have different gifts and life experiences. I have no idea how many of us are published, or even have agents representing us, but I do know that a number of us don’t. For a lot of the published authors, the journey to publication wasn’t easy. One of the things we have to learn is how to deal with rejection. If we know that writing is what God has called us to do, we must be diligent in it and trust Him to let us walk through only those doors He wants us to, when He want us to. By no means is this easy, but day by day we make it through and He strengthens us to deal with the low points and the high ones.

I am so proud of the Paralympians and am encouraged to take a leaf out of their book, pick myself up and continuing writing regardless of the nay sayers. God called me; He is teaching me and making me along the way. Not always pleasant, but it’s all good.

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Ufuoma Daniella Ojo is a Technical Author and Software Trainer. She lives in London. She is working on some new stories about relationships and is trusting God for connections leading to publication.