The Olympian In All of Us

 

It seems that everywhere you go, people have tuned into the Olympics (I love that there are members of the Mountain Sky witnessing the games in person!). There is something so inspiring watching people who have trained for years push themselves even further to be even better.

I recently learned about the worst performance in Olympic history. Eric Moussambani was a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who had never even seen an Olympic-sized swimming pool until he got to the Sydney games! He learned to swim less than a year before the Olympics, training in a hotel swimming pool. Moussambani gained a place at the Olympics through a wild card entry system aimed at providing greater participation and access to the games.

As the 100 meter race began, the other two swimmers had false starts, so Moussambani was the lone

swimmer in that heat. The crowd was confused at first, watching a swimmer with such poor form race. But then they began to cheer him on. His race time was 1:52:72. The gold metalist that year finished in 48:30 seconds!

I’ve been thinking a lot about him these days. He was never going to be a great swimmer—there were so many obstacles preventing him from true greatness. But speed and winning the race isn’t the only path to greatness.

First, he didn’t give up. Even though he had an embarrassment-worthy performance, the fact is he did race, something not many can claim. Secondly, it wasn’t the end of his story. His Olympic time was his new personal best and set an Equatorial Guinean national record. And, later, he became the coach of his country’s national swimming squad, helping young people be even better swimmers than he was.

Each of us has been created to run our unique race. We might never receive a gold metal from the world, or an Oscar, or make a million dollars. There are times when we will misstep, fall, and even embarrass ourselves. But we are still called to run the race as best as we can and not give up. Because the story doesn’t end at the race’s finish line. Others will be impacted by our legacy. Our story will inform other stories. We will learn something that will be passed on to those in the future.

Because we don’t know how God will use our efforts. My favorite, go-to scripture when life gets rough and I feel as if I can’t go on is Romans 8: 28:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love God, who have been called according to God’s purpose.”

God is working something good out in you. Your task—the task for each of us—is to do the best we can in every circumstance, and let God take care of the rest.