The Olympics

It's the second week of the Olympics and I am still watching it. Michael Phelps has finished and I am still watching it. I am watching things like Water Polo, Diving, Volleyball, and Table Tennis. Not always the glamorous or most watched events, but the medals are the same size, color, and prestige. I like the off beat things about the Olympics. I have watched all the diving events, even the synchronized diving, which I've never seen before. I guess I like these events because I've played them all. I used to dive competitively when I was a teenager. I've played Water Polo and Volleyball competitively, too. When I was going to seminary in Pennsylvania, the competition at the ping-pong tables was pretty intense - not Olympic caliber but pretty good table tennis.
One of the things I have tried to teach over the years it the idea that God can use anyone. I just did a first person narrative sermon as Elijah and one of the points I made in it was that Elijah was someone who, called by God, became more than he thought he could ever be. God does that to people. He makes them more important, more significant, larger than they thought they could ever be. I look at all these athletes doing these amazing things - the Phelps, Bolts, Liukins. And then I think, you know, I might have been able to do that. OK, maybe not but I could have tried. I think many of them are people who realize that they are doing more than they ever thought they could do.
Every time I walk into the classroom or mount a pulpit I feel like Elijah or an Olympic athlete - I'm doing something greater than I ever thought I could do; greater than anything I thought I could be. Not that I am great but that what God has called me to do is greater than I ever hoped to do. I get to influence lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. I get to read and divide the Word of God. I get to study and learn the intricacies of the Word. What a privilege I have. Who'd a thought a kid from Gloucester, N.J. with little to no background in the church would grow up to be at one of the most prestigious schools in the world pursuing a Ph.D in Homiletics? Only God. Only God. He makes us do even greater things than we can ever dream or imagine.