Winners!

Madrid yesterday was awash with colour, welcoming home the conquering heroes of Euro2008. Life here in Lisbon, 7 hours away, goes on as normal. I think that people were happy enough for their neighbours, first cousins really, but felt that it really should have been Portugal up there on the podium.

But there can only be one champion, one team to raise the cup aloft, one team to bask in all the glory. And all the rest go away, as Anne Robinson would say in that terribly English accent, with nothing.

Well, whether, its Euro2008 or Wimbledon we’re used to the fact that, in sport, as in a lot of other things, that’s the way life is. But when St Paul, states that in a race “all the runners run, but only one gets a prize” * , and implies that he's talking about the spiritual life, we tend to throw up our hands and say, Hey, Wait a minute! If you’re talking living for God, finding the way into Heaven, are you saying that only one person will win in the end, and everyone else will be disqualified? That’s not fair! What about all my efforts, all my struggles? Don’t they count for anything? Is God going to exclude me because I didn’t quite make the grade?

Well, I thought about that for a bit, and it struck me, that yes, it's true. There is only one winner. Because the bar is raised so high that noone but the best can achieve it. The standard is perfection, God’s holiness, “no immoral, impure or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God”.** There's no place for anything but one hundred performance. Otherwise, God's kingdom would be admitting weakness, faults, imperfection, When Andy Murray fought back from two sets down to Gasquet yesterday, he showed amazing strength of character, as well as huge ability and skill. But if he had not in the end got to Match Point and won the game, he would have been out. All of the effort, the training, the self belief would have counted for nothing. There would in the end be no reward. And that's exactly where we lie. All our efforts do not in the end bring us up to God's standard of perfection.

There can only be one champion. And there is!! His name is Jesus. And for us, in spite of all of our best efforts, the only way that we can enjoy the victory parade and hold aloft the cup is by being part of His team. Believing in Him, knowing that He’s a winner, and that He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him. ***

* 1 Cor 9:24
** Eph 5:5
*** Heb 7:25