Olympic Marathon Runner Receives the Crown of Life

After writing yesterday about Olympic gold winner David Boudia, a friend sent me the story of born-again Olympic Marathon runner Ryan Hall.  Last year, after finishing as runner-up at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships, he filled out a standard drug testing form and wrote “God” in the space where he was to write the name of his “coach.” When told he had to write in a “real” name, Ryan insisted “God is a ‘real’ person.”  A story about Ryan in the NY Times declared: A Runner’s Belief: God Is His Coach.

In the Olympic marathon on Sunday, Ryan Hall failed to finish the race due to an injured hamstring.  Despite his disappointing performance, Ryan made it clear on Twitter: “God is so good. My circumstances have the possibility of shifting my perception of His goodness but His goodness never changes.”

When I heard Ryan’s story, it occurred to me how much we love ‘happy endings.’ We want the David Boudia’s and Ryan Hall's to win. But the Spirit reminded me it isn’t about “winning” competitions, but about finishing well, about passing God’s tests.  And there is a reward for those who do. The Crown of Life is the prize for those who rejoice, trusting in the goodness of God when faced with disappointments. Ryan Hall is a winner. “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test [or, finished his race], he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12).

Tweeting is for the Birds, isn't it?

Did you hear that President Obama had a Twitter Town Hall on Wednesday? Tweeting has become the icon of word economy. “Tweeple,” people who “tweet” on Twitter, need to communicate in messages that are no more than 140 characters.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said it took him about an hour to write a one-hour speech, but two hours or more to do a 30-minute version. Henry David Thoreau said a story doesn’t need to be long, but it takes a long time to make it short. Mark Twain said if he had more time, he’d write shorter.

But surely these wordsmiths would have found the brevity of tweets and texts utterly contemptible. No, these short communiqués are not the product of thoughtful writing. Rather they are simply driven by a need for speed: quite the opposite of what Roosevelt, Thoreau, and Twain had in mind.

In these daily blog posts, I try to be concise without sacrificing depth. And though I hope my words are meaty enough to chew on for awhile, they cannot substitute for a healthy daily diet of The Word. In this day of texts and tweets, look at what Jesus said about words: “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). Well, all this is to say, I think our President’s town hall twitter is a good time to reflect on the importance of God’s words, and be careful that we are not twittering away our daily talks with Him!

Will they be watching Jesus on YouTube?

Yesterday in an interview with ABC News Reporter Christiane Amanpour, Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s oldest son, said he thinks the second coming of Jesus Christ could be a social media event captured by millions of mobile phones, explaining, “The Bible says that Christ will come on the clouds and every eye is going to see it.”

I have always thought that Christ’s visibility to the whole world at once would just be a rather supernatural event. But Graham finds a ‘natural’ explanation for it! Just think of it! Everyone will be taking pictures with their cell phones and sending them throughout the entire world by picture and video messaging, which will be watched on YouTube, and shared on Face book, and "tweeps" tweeting it in real time.  Graham seems to be suggesting not only that Jesus' return is imminent, but that the phenomenon of social media is one more proof that everything is getting in place for the world’s greatest event!