The Olympian

So now that the Olympics are over, we can go back to forgetting all about those people we got to know for two-plus weeks until 2014. I'm always surprised how I get pulled into sporting events and games that I completely ignore for 4 years, save those 2 weeks they get high profile during Olympics. During these times we get an in depth, up close look at the athletes' lives and training for this one, special time. We're told that they've trained their whole lives for this chance at Olympic glory, to live forever in our hearts and minds and in the record books. They of course, have other competitions that they earn their living at, but this is the Olympics.

We root for people we've never heard of because they wear our flag on their back. We root against people we've never heard of because we don't like what the president/dictator/military of their homeland did in the past. Strangely, we're really only rooting for the place we were born, through no decision of our own, and we're forever rooted there. In each competition there's a winner who gets to climb the podium and hear his or her national anthem. The glory of victory lasts forever.

Right?

Who was the men's polevault winner in 2000? Can't remember? Maybe you need something more recent and prominent. Who won the women's figure skating gold in 2006? Google it and you'll know, but is that glory? I say no. Sports glory lasts as long as the national anthem of the winner. Maybe even as long as the offseason. Short lived for sure.

There is a kind of glory that lasts for much longer. You could say it is truly a lasting glory that Olympians strive for, but slips through their hands like sand. The Olympian is God, and his glory has no end. His victory is over the power of Hell, and he stands atop the podium to hear his anthem. "He doesn't have an anthem" you might say, but surely he does. It goes like this "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" and continues "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Revelation 4) But the anthem doesn't end, and it's not a recording that repeats. The anthem is sung by the creatures God himself created, and they sing it not because they are forced or coerced, they do it because they feel compelled to and have no other way to express their feelings. God never tires of this expression, and neither does his creation.

God is The Olympian who receives the eternal glory that athletes strive for.