MORE THAN WINNING
On holiday at Lake Cowichan, I am gazing at the water. It is a good time to rest but also a time to ponder and pray.
I cannot get a phrase out of my head. It came from another (yawn) story about sport and doping. "It's what you have to do to win" the interviewee said.
For a while, I was smug as certainly I am above that - until the light of critical assessment rests on me. I have to admit - preachers are not above wanting to win. The offering plate take and worship attendance numbers get quietly compared with one's neighbour, becoming the sweet elixir of victory or the bitter dregs of failure.
Winning means more newcomers than all the rest. Being Reverend Congeniality does not have the same ring as first place. I ponder some of the year's events and reflect on how I spoke and acted.
Thankfully, God moves closer to me during holidays. I hear familiar words spoken to me before: "Jim, you do not have to win, just run the race. My love is for you and not tied to any sense of success or failure. I loved you long before you tied the laces on your first shoes.
"All I ask that you accept that you are accepted. Run the race of life not to win but rather run it to love me with all your heart, mind, body and soul and to love your neighbour as yourself."
Jim Short can be reached at [email protected].
