All right admit it – for the last two weeks most of you have fantasized at some point about being an Olympic athlete winning a gold medal. Did you see yourself winning a downhill ski race? Gracefully navigating a figure skating program? Dazzling the crowd with your gravity defying snowboarding? We all sometimes think about being somebody different or new, don’t we? I can just see myself on the medal stand with gold around my neck after smoking the field in speed skating.
I’ve been thinking about my alternate life as a star athlete in the context of our theme for this school year “New in Christ” based on 2 Corinthians 5:17. Sometimes we dream about being someone else like an Olympic winner because we’re dissatisfied with our place in life or current circumstances. We think, “Wouldn’t it be great if I was….” We fantasize about a better life with more money, a different personality, or a happier family. Surely those things will make me content or a winner at life, right? The real truth for all of us though is that we are someone new. Because of Jesus love for us and His sacrifice we have been given everything that we need for a new life – grace, forgiveness, mercy, and hope. We don’t need an Olympic pedestal because we stand on the rock of Calvary. I don’t need to be anyone other then who I am because God has made me everything I need to be. A gold medal would be nice though 🙂