One of the events that I streamed yesterday morning was a 150km bike race. It was a good race, and I was enjoying the competition between the three leaders towards the end, even though none of them were from the United States. Three men had left the rest of the racers and were so far in front there was no point in discussing anyone else's chances of medaling...until the wreck. With about 6km left and the race almost over the men went down as they rounded a curve. They were on the other side of the curve from the camera motorcycle, so I don't know what happened. We saw them go into the curve, disappear for about 2 seconds, and then they were on the road, down, with their Olympic dreams crushed and victory snatched away. One mistake and three men went from the podium with its medals and acclaim to defeated brokenness.
My heart ached for those men. That's not how I like to see someone win or lose. I would much prefer both gymnasts stick the landing and one just did it a little better than to watch a rival turn a knee and go down. And I thought about how quickly and easily our lives can become like those cyclists. We've positioned ourselves for the best possible outcome and done our best. We're out in front and success is so close everyone watching is talking about it. Then something goes wrong. Maybe we make a slight adjustment error, maybe we get a little off balance for some reason, or our focus gets taken from where it needs to be at the exact wrong moment, or perhaps something we failed to notice that needed to be taken care of with our equipment breaks down. It might not even be us that messed up. Maybe we didn't react correctly or fast enough when the person next to us or in front of us fell. It could have even been unavoidable. Someone else's mistake or an unforeseeable problem arises that no reaction, no focus and no preparation could have prevented from taking us down.
Everything looks good, feels good, and then destruction comes. Defeat takes the day. Victory is a dream fading like the morning fog. It's over, and we're left broken on the side of the road trying to figure out what went wrong. It's devastating and heartbreaking It can make us want to give up and quit forever. We may feel like saying forget this it hurts too much. I'm done.
Every Olympics there are injuries,mistakes and simple being outdone that dash dreams. There will be more in 2016 as well. There is only one gold and three medals in each event and the vast majority will return to their homes with less than they dreamed of. But something else will happen this year as well. I may miss it, if I have the volume off, but someone will step up to compete and the announcers will discuss how that athlete fell short or got injured or something devastating happened four years ago. It might even be something like the dressage rider who rode yesterday in his fourth Olympics but hadn't medaled yet but rode beautifully and took the lead.
Success stories are fun, but let's admit it, there is something inspiring about the little engine that could, about the person who never gave up, the athlete who comes back from defeat and achieves victory. What we may not think about when we imagine those inspirational victories is the pain, suffering, doubt, and confusion that happened at the times of the fall and during the recovery afterward. The questions that came to mind as they stepped up to try again. What if the same thing happened again? What if it was worse?
We will have those times of discouragement and failure. No matter how prepared, well trained or ability we have, we will come up short, fail or wreck badly. The difference between the believer and the athlete is no matter how bad the wreck, even if it kills us, the story is not over. The God we run for is faithful and has promised to heal and restore us perfectly, if not on this side of eternity then in the next. He can though pour out His grace and create something even more amazing and wondrous and beautiful from the ashes of our dreams. He can make our biggest failures prequels to inspirational victories. But He can only do that if we let Him. We have to stay in surrender, let Him pick us up and return to the race. This event may be over and done. We may have to wait, train and recover for four years before we can try again. We may even have to switch events, but we have something we can do for the glory of the kingdom. If we refuse to quit, decline the desire to drop out and respond to the call to try again, victory is promised because of His grace.
So no matter how bad the wreck was that happened, is in the process of happening or is to come, let Him pick you up, tend your wounds and return to the race. Take your hurts and fears and confusion to Him and let Him take care of you instead of withdrawing and giving up. Look to Him as the source of everything that we need to endure and continue and lean on His grace. There is victory in Jesus greater than the agony of any and every defeat.
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