What Comes After Gold?

Just thought I will write out a newspaper reflection on one of the articles i read today. (haha, doesn't newspaper reflection sound so familiar to secondary school life?). I found it really interesting, and for those who wanna read up on it, it can be found on Life page C8, 19th August 2008.

The article is named "What comes after gold?", and it talks about Gold winners in the Olympics reaching their "ultimate" goal in life, sacrificing and giving it all that they have got, their childhood, other dreams, love, family time, and then feeling a sense of loss because all that they were living for is over. Just to quote an example,

"New york - Decathlete Bruce Jenner (above) crossed the finish line in the 1,500m final in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, arms flying above his head, knowing he had won the gold, and that he had set a world record. He just did not know what he was doing for dinner.

"I had no plans, nothing,' said Jenner in a telephone interview last Saturday.A friend lent him the use of a luxury suite in Montreal that night with sweeping views of the city where he had just been immortalised.

"So there I was in this amazing suite... and I'm looking around and the place had a grand piano, and i thought, maybe i should learn to play the piano. I mean, I was extremely satisfied but also devastated by the finality of it all.' "

According to Dr Ungerlied, many Olympians having serious problems post-Olympics as "this was the only life they knew and it was inconceivable to do anything else". He wrote in his study that was published in 1997.

Over the past few days, I kindda admired the medal winners at the Olympics, taking to note the amount of hard work they had put in to get to where they were, and wondering whether I could be in their position if I was given the right opportunity. (maybe the next Michale Phelps. haha) . But after reading this article, I realised that the few seconds of glory and the circular piece made up of goal was still not the best thing to sacrifice your "whole life" for.

This brought me to the bible verse:

1 Corinthians 9: 24 - 26
24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly;
I do not fight like a man beating the air.

I guess this verse just says it all.

Well, one thing is for sure, tht this race (the christian race) that we are running for has a prize that will lasts forever. Don't give up all my brothers and sisters in Christ. We will def not be disappointed when we reach the finish line together!

God bless