Thought for the Week

by Rev Beverley Sproats, St. John’s Church, Yeadon

WATCHING the recent Olympic games from Rio and cheering on Team GB has been exciting. Well done to the Great Britain team for a fantastic tally of 67 medals including 27 gold medals! Memorable moments include seeing the Brownlee brothers from Yorkshire cross the line in first and second place in the Triathlon. Athletes achieve seemingly effortless successful, witness Usain Bolt cruising to victory in the 100m and 200m races. However, hard work and training is required behind the scenes.

Often all goes to plan and a carefully executed strategy pays off to win a gold medal. However when plans fail, dramatic moments ensue. The tension was palpable when the cycling keirin race was stopped twice and re-started. Jason Kenny kept his cool and sprinted to win the gold. In another startling moment, Mo Farah fell during the 10,000m race and remarkably got back up, continued running and won!

Sometimes life doesn’t go to plan. Illness, redundancy, relationship issues and other troubles can trip us up. We might have a few false starts and battle to get off the starting blocks. However, when we struggle and stumble, we can always get up and return to God again and again.

We might not win a race like Mo Farah or Jason Kenny, but we can be in the race, running towards the prize of eternal life with God as the apostle Paul says in the letter to the Philippians. Paul says, ‘I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me … I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.’

God calls us to run the race of life with him. When we are troubled, God promises to be our refuge and strength and even when we stumble and fall, he undertakes to help us. So, whatever challenges you are facing at the moment, know you can call on God to sustain you and help you return to him as you continue the race of life.