Good morning, I'm
the Rev Steve Page from St Patrick's Anglican Church, and you're
listening to the Daily Devotional moment, sponsored by the Hudson Bay
Ministerial.
This month, I'm
drawing our images of Christian faith and spirituality from the
wonderful and sometimes weird world of Sports.
Today, let's go
back to the 1964 Winter Olympic games in Innsbruck,
Austria. It was not a good Olympics for the United States. If
you are used to seeing the US dominate whatever it tries, you would
have been surprised to find that, by the midpoint of the '64
Olympics, they had only two measly medals, and neither was a gold.
They had 1 silver and 1 bronze.
When the day
dawned for the 500 meter speed skating competition, the American
hopes rested on Terry McDermott, a quiet man who avoided the media
and the spotlight as much as he could, and preferred to shut out all
the noise and just skate.
That day, his
coach decided that McDermott needed to feel a little more pressure.
He took a chance and requested that his skater have one of the last
races. Whatever advantage they might gain from knowing what the times
were to beat would be offset by the ice conditions, which would
likely be much worse toward the end of the competition. To add to the
challenge, McDermott was going to have to use borrowed skates for the
race, because his only pair had broken a few weeks earlier, and
repair attempts failed.
The result of the
earlier races had a 3-way tie for first place, including a Norwegian
skater and two from the Soviet Union.
When the starter
pistol fired for McDermott's race, he took off, and pushed himself
hard, hard, hard. To everyone's amazement, he crossed the finish line
a half-second ahead of the leaders, and set a new Olympic record in
the process. More than that, he made his country proud, and prevented
the US from going without a gold medal for the first time ever.
Terry McDermott
faced a lot of pressure that day, and he rose to the challenge. The
pressure brought out the best in him. Some athletes thrive under
pressure. They seem to be able to control their adrenaline and get
the clutch hit, or the timely goal, or the perfect pass. Others,
however, wilt under the pressure. They drop the pass, fan weakly at
strike three with the bases loaded, or blow it.
I bet your life
has some pressure in it, too. Maybe you don't have the Olympic hopes
of a nation riding on your shoulders, but challenges at work to meet
quotas or deadlines, or conflicts with your spouse over money, or any
number of other things add to the pressure and strain you are under.
Pressure can be a
good and necessary thing. Think of the tires
on your car. They need a certain amount of air pressure in them. Too
little and you can't drive your car. But too much pressure in your
tires is also dangerous.
But pressure can
either destroy or strengthen us. For example: you can't build up your
muscles without resistance, which is another kind of pressure. When
you are under such pressure, turn to God and pray for relief and for
strength to endure.
Paul wrote in 2nd
Corinthians chapter 1 and
explained to his readers a bit about what he had recently been
facing. “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to
endure, so that we despaired even of life. ... But this happened that
we might not rely on ourselves but on God.”
What a great
lesson: rely on God at all times, but especially during those times
of great stress and pressure. God is a God of deliverance, and he
will bless you with strength and endurance, and with his help you
will emerge stronger for the experience.
For St Patrick's
Church, I'm Steve Page.
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