One Olympian Wins the Gold and an Eternal Reward

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).

Slow to Speak; Quick to Listen

Three times in Isaiah 53:7 it says that Jesus was silent: “He did not open His mouth...” As believers, we must know how to open our mouths wide and shout to the Lord at times when we praise and thank Him. We must also know how to keep our mouths shut when we are insulted, criticized and slandered. Jesus knew how to praise His Father and He also knew how to be silent.

Unfortunately it is the other way round with many Christians. They are silent when it comes to shouting God’s praises in the meetings. But they do know how to shout and defend themselves when someone accuses them or hurts them. But that is the characteristic of an upside-down world, and Christians must be different.

The preceding is an excerpt from Zac Poonen’s Word for the Week “The Word of the Cross” that I wanted to share: it struck a chord with me, and hope it will with you too. I am all too quick to want to explain myself when I think I am being misunderstood. But that can prevent me from hearing what the Lord may be wanting to speak to me. Unlike Jesus who had done nothing wrong to defend, I do. And I need to stop and consider that before speaking. We must be slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19).