Gold Medals
Beginning as children, thousands strive for Olympic gold medals in their sports. Training is more than a full time job, day in and day out for years, encompassing every aspect of their lives from eating and sleeping, to fitness and skill. Depending on the sport, they may spend hours every day in the weight room, work on balance, build stamina, perform drills (over and over and over), pile on the miles or the laps or the runs, put up with discomfort, and work around pain. Their demanding coaches push them to greater fitness, and improved results. Then, once every four years, there is one gold medal per event.
Would the gold medal winners say their coaches were unreasonably difficult?
Eternal Life
Eternal Life is not a prize to win, but is a gift of God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no only may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
No amount of human achievement results in being right with God. (See Becoming a Child of God.)
Eternal Rewards
However, how we live the Christian life will be tested, and rewards given. (See 1 Corinthians 3:12-15)
There are crowns to be awarded in heaven, and other rewards impossible to imagine. Are eternal rewards worth some struggle now? Are eternal rewards worth the level of effort athletes put in for a possible Olympic gold? Or more effort for a much bigger, eternal reward?
“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” … (2 Corinthians 4:17)
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7–8)
“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)
Sometimes the Lord seems rough on His kiddies.
Moses asked the Lord about that: “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? (Numbers 11:11)
How hard do you think the Lord should work us? Are you going for the gold? Is the effort worth it?
