Olympic Mistakes
With the Olympics starting this week, it has my family in front of the TV (whether they want to be or not!), watching the opening ceremonies (did that guy really not wear a shirt while carrying his flag for his country when it was 5 degrees outside?!) and then settling in to watch our favorite events (although we watched curling already and I still can’t figure out what that event is all about or why it is an Olympic event).
The back-stories to the athletes are amazing too. They devote their entire lives preparing to compete in this one event. Most, if not all, will never compete in the Olympics again, with this being their only chance and opportunity to perform their best “one last time” and to try and win the gold medal. Hours and hours and lifetimes of practice and dedication are spent trying to make sure that when they compete in their event that they don’t make any mistakes.
We are fortunate that we don’t have to be like that in our workplace with our faith. We make faith mistakes all the time, don’t we? I know I do. Has there ever been a time where someone said something that was inappropriate about someone else and we stayed in the conversation, not walking away or even sticking up for the person? Has their ever been a time where you have been unkind to another co-worker or customer because you were mad about a particular action of theirs? Balancing our faith with our work is not easy and takes a lifetime of practice too, but the good news is God still forgives us even when we mess up while doing it.
You see a Real Christian Businessman doesn’t have to train like an Olympic athlete to be able to show God’s love in the workplace. Even a little “training” on a regular basis like reading our bible and praying will end up spilling over into our everyday work and life.
Use the Olympic games as an example of what we can strive to be when it comes to showing our faith with our work, even with limited training. We may not be at the ‘top of our game’ when it comes to being an example in the workplace, but God will use even a little practice and effort by us to make big differences in the people’s lives we work with.
“Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is valuable in every way, because it promises life both for the present and for the future.” 1 Tim 4:8 (GNT)