Recently I have been intrigued with all the excitement of the winter Olympics. Our weather here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with snowfalls and temperatures often in the twenties and even teens, truly models the image of “winter.” What has caught my attention is the sheer determination on the faces of every Olympic hopeful. Their testimonies speak of growing up with the focus and drive to be standing on the platform at the end of their event, holding a medal and representing the USA. Some of the Olympic hopefuls have already achieved an Olympic medal in the past but are still striving for that next victory; the medal hung around their neck while standing in all their glory with the national anthem played for everyone to hear. You can see their tears of joy streaming down their faces, tears of accomplishing the goals that were set before them.

With each testimony I watch on TV, there are some similarities in each one of the contestants. You hear the words train, hard, work harder, press, tired and “work some more”. Three of these Olympic hopefuls run across my mind as I write this blog today. First is Apolo Ohno, a speed skater who is looking to break the record for the most medals in won in the winter Olympics. Secondly is a snowboarder, Kelly Clark, who won at the age of eighteen and found Jesus as her Lord and Savior. This is such an awesome testimony of God on primetime television. The third is Lindsey Vonn, a downhill skier who has all the right talents and I believe she should win every event that she enters. However, she experienced an accident that might keep her from competing at 100%. The words that came out of her mouth in the interview threw me to the floor. She said, “I’m hurt, but I’m here and I’m going to compete regardless of the pain.” It was not actually her words that surprised me, but the words of my Father God saying to me, “Where is this kind of determination in you?” Jesus told the disciples in Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate for many I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

Paul really sets us straight as a believer in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. He says, “Those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” Paul is not telling us here, “Well whatever happens, happens.” If that was the case why would he say, “thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others I myself should be disqualified.”

I have caught myself at points in my life, feeling tired, beat down and at a place of spiritual exhaustion. However, after seeing these Olympians and the hunger inside of them to win a ribbon with a coin attached to it, I have to ask, how much more should we believers be hungry for the crown that the Lord is waiting to give us?  I don’t know about you, but I want to make it to the top podium. I want my national anthem to be played in the tune of, “enter in, good and faithful servant.” When it is all said and done and we know that everything we have accomplished on this earth was for the cause of Christ. Just as those few Olympians take their medals to their friends or family, a greater and more glorious day will be when we will turn and lay our crowns at the feet of the one we love, Jesus. Let us discipline ourselves today to have the hunger to win for the Kingdom of God!