Thursday, August 21, 2008

Watching the Olympics!

As the Olympics role around every couple of years, I find myself glued to the television watching sports that I have either never seen before or only last saw four years previous when they were on the last time. This year I have sat in my living room, watched from an apartment on the campus of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, checked scores on my phone, and generally looking for as much information I can about how the Americans are doing. I root for each American with pride in their achievement and a hope that we can display the greatness of our country. I enjoy listening to and watching the stories behind the valiant work that each athlete has had to produce and occasionally the amazing tribulation that has been overcome. It even causes us to reflect on all of the history that is in the Olympics such as previous world-record holders, past medals won, and the place in which the whole world entered this grand stadium.

This year I have seen sports that I personally would not consider a "sport" (badminton, "racewalking," synchronized swimming, Dressage, etc.). I have enjoyed like so many others the amazing accomplishment of Michael Phelps. I have experienced the emotional let downs when an athlete that you cheer for falls. It is the Olympics and they are lots of fun, they captivate many throughout the world with feelings of national pride. And it is here that I want to focus...I love to see the Americans win! There is nothing inherently wrong with this. I am proud of the USA and what we are able to accomplish!

HOWEVER (that can be such a big word), America also breaks my heart! We are a great nation, and we have so many great days and accomplishments ahead of us. But, I see an immorality that grieves God and should grieve every believer. We are complacent in our following the Lord Jesus Christ. We fail to seek God's Truth and are instead satisfied and tolerate humanism and arrogance and subjective truth (which is not truth at all)! We have become a nation that tolerates, condones, and even promotes the murder of infants in the womb through abortion (and God will Judge us if we don't stand up for these innocent ones)! This is not to say that I do not love my country...instead it is because I love my country that I have a broken heart over her sinfullness. Christians try to proclaim and falsely prophecy that the United States is the nation of God, and this is simply not true. We can be a nation that is faithul to God, but we are not that now! It must start with believers living faithfully TODAY!

My prayer: God heal this land! Bring us back to You by surgically piercing us and making us pure! Let me be a light and preach your Word faithfully.