Faster, Higher, Stronger, and a Bit Weirder

I remember in the 1950s someone complaining about the cheerleaders at our Junior High School (Middle School) wearing “skimpy” uniforms because  “too much of their legs were showing.”  I am so glad those same people are either no longer alive or too old to have been watching the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics from Paris, France last weekend. From Drag Queens forming an image of the Lord’s Supper to a certain commentator proudly wearing the image of a pagan idol, the Opening Ceremony “entertainment” was an embarrassment to Christian athletes and viewers as well. The responses on social media were punctuated with comments like, “I will never watch another Olympics” to “I turned it off so my children wouldn’t be exposed to it.” The four-hour, made for television” entertainment, which overshadowed, but under-whelmed, the thousands of athletes, from 200 countries, floating down the River Seine, in 85 boats, may be described as, “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).  I have served with the “More Than Gold” ministry in two summer Olympics and one winter Olympic, and am a huge fan of the Olympics, furthermore, being in the world but not of the world, and having now expressed my frustrations, I will do two things over the next few weeks: (1) Having been in France on several occasions, I will pray for those who serve there and the people they serve and (2) I will sit back in my recliner and watch hours of wonderful Olympic competition involving athletic women and men, fulfilling the Olympic motto – “Faster . . .  Higher . . . Stronger.”