Hard to believe that August is already a third gone.  I’m not ready for it, of course, my mind is still set in the 90’s, can’t understand how 10 years ago was 2006 – incredible.

Had a good steak from Rose’s beef, garnished with a fresh garden salad.  I do love the harvest time of the year.

Proverbs 19:22-23   An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

²³ A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

I have been watching the Olympics.  I pick and choose the events I wish to watch, I enjoy Equestrian competitions, gymnastics, swimming, shooting, archery, sailing, rowing just to name a few.  I rarely watch the ‘team sports’ preferring the individual competition to the groups. 

I watch in amazement as I see these young men and women perform incredible feats of strength, agility and flexibility.  For at least the last four years many of them have been training hard for the few moments they will compete at the Olympics.

They have spent untold numbers of hours perfecting their form, doing everything they can to gain an edge on the competition.  They watch their diets, train under extreme circumstances using the latest technological knowledge and equipment to get the very most out of their body.

Four years, 208 months, 1460 days, hours upon hours a day.  They get to the starting post and compete with others, and the difference between the winner and last place often has to be classified in 100ths of seconds. 

Mind games are always being played by the competitors, most of it is serious, but not designed to embarrass the opponent – just trying to gain that slight psychological advantage.

But there are always those that take it too far, who want to humiliate their opponent and such happened in the swimming competition this year.

One young man has won more gold medals than many countries have won total – I believe I heard the count of 93 countries have won less metals.  In 2012 he lost a very close race to a brash young man.  The former stated that he had not really prepared for the 2012 Olympics and said he would have done better if he had trained more.

This upset the other young man, who, for the next four years fixated on defeating the first man, again.  As the swimmers gathered together to swim this particular race, the brash young man tried to intimidate and get into the head of the first.

He was trying to stare him down whenever possible; he shadow boxed in front of him, and then did a little dance.  The first man kept his composure and didn’t respond.

Now, sometimes that kind of activity will impact a person, and when it comes to micro seconds even the slightest flinch can make the difference between winning or not.

Some respond with anger and that gets in the way of their doing their best.  Others, like the first man, use it to spur their competitive juices even more and give even a stronger effort.

The race was on, the first young man took first place – a Gold Medal, the second young man finished fourth, he didn’t even get a medal.

Four years of anger, four years of pride, four years of being so focused on a person’s comments that it ended up getting him nothing but embarrassment and humiliation.

What do we work for?  Why?  Is it for self-gratification, for pride, or for a sincere desire to do our best not just for ourselves, but for the benefit of others?

God wants us to have the fortitude, determination, perseverance of these highly trained athletes.  He wants us to ‘go for the gold.’  And doing so takes nothing from someone else, instead it helps others and the gold we attain, eventually, is the gold that paves the streets of heaven.

It is too easy to let our pride guide our thoughts and actions, pride that can lead us down a dangerous path that ends in destruction, embarrassment and humiliation – only this time it is in front of God at His judgement seat.

Let us focus on the only thing that really matters, our service to our Savior, Our Heavenly Father, following the Holy Spirit wherever He leads us.

Study, train, being the best that we can be so He can help us finish the race in victory.

Later, Art :-)