As primetime TV continues to allure me to the Olympics festivities, I am blown
away by the tremendous discipline and athleticism of the athletes competing in
all of the events. What so easily goes unnoticed is the hard work and
strenuous activities that have taken place months and even years leading up to
the few brief moments of the media's coverage of a short race or event.
I wonder what the strongest sense of motivation for these athletes
has been; a parent's prod, a personal sense of accomplishment, a coach's
encouragement, loyalty to a country....
Not only the motivation to
begin to attempt the training process but what garnered their attention during
those hours of dreaded and ruthless training sessions? Was it short-sighted
victories along the way, were they motivated by the thought of loss or other
competitor's accomplishments, or maybe the popular Beats headphones distracted
them from the swellingly painful moments of hard work...
This led me
to rekindle the thought of the 1980's music scene and the discipline of the
Christian faith. Remember the 80's BoomBox days? Consider the all-impressive
8'-12' speakers pounding into the ears of its hearers as they bolstered the
stereo on their shoulders while walking down the street! Cassette tapes (and
later compact discs!) impressively designed to display their favorite genre of
music.
It's the buttons on those crafty machines that have caught
my attention: Rec, Play, Rew, FF, Stop/Ej, Pause...Have you ever considered
which of those buttons are most often used? Which buttons seem to be most
important? Which ones we could do without?
REWIND/FAST FORWARD: This is
our way to escape our present reality....there always seems to be another scene
that we would rather encounter!
STOP/EJECT: This occurs when we have readily
decided to discard our current situation, when we are ready to remove (sometimes
permanently) certain issues from our presence!
PAUSE: Music is an art that
sometimes requires reflection...it is here that we are able to momentarily put
on hold a present reality that we don't want to see move!
RECORD: The music
that is most attractive causes us to download it to a place of
accessibility!
PLAY: This is the constant motion of what really motivates and
entertains us!
In the Christian life we need to learn to download
the truth of God's Word (Rec), actively pursue the life of Christ (Play), learn
to wait on God's leading (Pause), identify the tempting struggles of life and
remove them from our lives (Stop/Eject), and be content with present
circumstances all the while using our past and future as motivation to stay the
course (Rew/FF)!
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