“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
~ Colossians 3:17
Along with much of the rest of the planet, Monica and I have been glued to the Olympics this week. We have cheered for people we never knew existed before these games began, especially enjoying the backstories of many athletes. We have made utterly superficial and snarky comments about figure skater costumes and discussed at length all the various athletic performances, even though we know literally nothing about any of these sports or how they should be properly evaluated. We, who have never skied, snowboarded, figure skated or played hockey in our entire lives, are now savvy experts able to opine on all things winter and Olympic…
Bummer - redemption denied!
I know we’re all probably ready to stop babbling about the Olympics right about now, but it seems to me there are two thought provoking, deeply spiritual lessons in young Lindsey’s story we would all do well to remember.
First of all, and perhaps most importantly, how utterly tragic and unfair is it that this hard-working, dedicated young woman’s entire life is now at least temporarily defined by two tiny, infinitesimally small moments of failure? And how ludicrous is it that a bunch of utterly arm chair quarterbacks like me, many of us literally terrified at the thought of zooming down a steep mountain on a slippery piece of fiberglass, would deem ourselves worthy of critiquing her performance? What a silly joke! It honestly made me a little angry to hear expert after expert ramble on about how this girl “blew it” in 2006. From what little I know about her sport, while she obviously made a mistake, it wasn’t something inconsistent with the character of snowboarding. She did something she’s probably done a thousand times in her career – it just didn’t work out right in 2006.
But even if she made flagrant (perhaps even evil) mistakes, it seems to me all the rest of us should be bending over backwards in these situations to not define her by those momentary mistakes. Where would any of us be if our lives were only defined by our worst moments of failure? Heaven help us! Think about it; this sweet, determined girl made it to the Olympic Games not once, but twice! She has been utterly electrifying and dedicated to her sport for years now. It seems to me we Christians especially should be intentional and lavish with our grace in moments such as these. We aren’t supposed to be dwelling on moments of failure.
On the other hand, there is a harsh second lesson in this story we must also honestly and brutally consider. While we, above all people, should be the lavishly, prodigally loving army of grace in the world, we above all people must also realize the often sober, staggering consequences of even the tiniest failures in life. We all hate this, we wish it wasn’t so, but sometimes consequences are wildly disproportionate to actions.
How often are lives completely ruined by the tiniest wrong decisions? How often does one mistaken left turn at a busy intersection leave lives potentially damaged forever? We can wish things weren’t this way, but all our wishing will not change these realities. Actions always, always have consequences – like them or not.
And this is where our Scripture reminder from the Apostle Paul comes in so beautifully. Dear brothers and sisters, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” In light of the often staggering consequences of failure, we must all do our best to live our lives in the name of the Lord Jesus. Whatever we say or do, we must constantly be aware of the potential for good or evil our lives contain.
We will still deal with difficult and often unfair consequences (John 16:33), but we must do all we can, by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit, to ensure we do as little harm to the name of Jesus as possible. And as a by-product of that effort, we’ll keep our own name pretty clean also! I’m not some anonymous, powerless guy living in a big city whose actions don’t have consequences – I am an emissary of the Great King, able to build or destroy the world with a spoken word or the tiniest mustard seed action.
I really need remember that – I really need to get a lot better at this Colossians 3:17 stuff! I really do!
But I also need to remember Lindsey Jacobellis isn’t some loser snowboarder who blew it at both the 2006 and 2010 Olympics. She is an absolutely amazing athlete who won snowboard cross gold medals both in 2005 and 2007 at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships and XGames gold medals in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2010. And even though she fell down in the final race, she still won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics!
Wow! I don’t know much, but I happen to think all that’s pretty good. I’ll bet I couldn’t even do that!
May God help us be gracious with the momentary weaknesses of others, yet fully aware of the truly sacred importance and potentially eternal consequence of each one of our life’s moments!
Amen.
