The Winter Olympic Games of 2002 had one controversy that stood out among the rest: the Pairs Figure Skating competition.
As I, along with the rest of the world, sat in shock and watched the Canadians lose the gold medal to what seemed to be unfair judging, I wondered how they would recover emotionally. They skated a perfect routine, the audience gave them a standing ovation, and even the commentators had voted them the winners. So when the ordinals came in and put them in second place, it felt like the entire stadium took an emotional hit.
Sale & Pelletier had done everything in their power to win the gold. When the end result was not what they had expected, they didn’t seem to be able to recover.
Where do you turn to when you feel like you’ve done everything right and still don’t get the end result you were looking for? Do you blame someone else, or do you rest secure that God will reveal himself in every circumstance? Above all, we must remember and rejoice in the fact that God is the source of our comfort.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. -2 Cor 1:3-4
If we only relied on the reward at the end of the road to determine our behaviors during the process, our lives would be very shallow and unfulfilling. Scott Hamilton even commented just before the medals were awarded, “It’s always the process and rarely the result”. The only end result we can be guaranteed of is salvation through Jesus Christ. I think you would all agree with me that there could be no greater reward than that.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. – Phil 2:1-2
