The Olympics may be over, but the rewards live on—in time. But there is at least one Olympian whose reward has eternal value—American David Boudia, a born-again believer who won a gold medal in diving competition, and gave God the glory. What makes David’s feat especially outstanding is that in the qualifying rounds on Friday, he came in 18th place—dead last. But in the finals on Saturday, his diving was gold worthy.
When David Boudia competed in the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, he says, “Diving was my God. It was a forced competition. I needed to do well there if I wanted to do well later in life.” Then David’s coach led him to Christ. This is David’s testimony:
I started reading scriptures about what it meant to live for God’s glory. Competition started to look a lot different. Competition is about feeding your selfish needs. You start to worry about what happens if you don’t win. You start to fear man because you want praise. You start thinking about how winning will lead to more money. So now when I go into competition, I take my thoughts captive and use God’s Word to fight that battle. It’s totally freeing when I stay in tune with scripture. I don’t have to worry if I miss a dive. If I do well, that’s awesome. I praise Him. If I don’t do well, praise Him even more.
"Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better,
promising benefits in this life and in the life to come" (1 Tim. 4:8).
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