......Because this one is all about The Games. The eyes of the whole world have been on London as they put finishing touches to their preparations for hosting the XXXth Olympic Games. Starting this weekend, London will be the epicenter of all the sporting action as well as attention of sports lovers & scribes. This is the event, sportsmen & women numbering thousands, have been preparing for four years (some even more) to compete with each other to excel in what they do best. Their quest will be to be Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger, the Olympic motto), than the rest of their competitors and we hope they do it in true Olympic Spirit viz (loosely put) 'not to win but to take part'. For some, a medal in Olympics will ensure that their future is secured and for some others, if not anything else, it will ensure that they have a story to tell their grand children 50 years from now. Medal or no medal, the term Olympian will be suffixed to their names, an honour they will carry with great pride for the rest of their lives.
For years, our great nation has been sending contingents every four years in true Olympic Spirit ie 'to participate and not to win.' Since 1928, India have won only 18 medals in total and 11 of them have come in Hockey. 9 of those medals are Gold and and 8 of those Gold medals are again in Hockey. Just goes on to say how great a nation we were in Hockey. But it was in 1980 we last won the Hockey Gold and though our present team is the best we have produced in years it's not happening this time either, so lets not go there.(May be in 2016 but not this year). Having said that, it is being said that this is the best & the strongest contingent that we have ever sent to The Games. There is a serious hope of winning medals across various disciplines, be it Boxing, Tennis, Badminton, Shooting and even Archery. I believe this edition of Olympics is going to be a fruiful one for our nation. We will know in 3 about weeks how well they do for the nation and themselves.
And why is yours truly writing all this? Well sports have been my life long weakness (I mean besides a few other things ie) and I have grown up watching, reading and playing (not to mention dreaming) sports practically ever since I have been using my five senses. While sports cannot be compared with Mammon, yet there is something gripping about it which can lead some (like me) away from the Lord. Mind you, excess of anything is bad and can also go to the extend of being sinful. For some, it could be their daily peg of whiskey, for some their daily pack of cigarettes......For me one of the things (among a few) has always been sports. Growing up, I would never miss a World Cup, a wimbledon or a French Open, a Champinos Trophy or a Euro cup. I remember in the neighborhood I grew up, we used to play sports as per 'seasons'. If FIFA World or Euro cup was going on, we'd play football, if champions trophy was being played, our hockey sticks would be out and we would put on our tennis shoes during the time of grand slams. Of course, playing is essential and I would say, even critical to one's wholesome growth but not to the point of making it an obsession and for me it always bordered on that. I used to wake up at 3:30am to watch India-New Zealand test matches, stay awake past midnight so that I would not miss that important England-Germany football match. Of course, there were some pluses. One of which was I almost ended up becoming a sports encyclopedia. (Coz the Brain always retains what you are passionate about !). I knew all the records, all the scores and all the history-geography of sports persons, the important dates and venues etc etc etc.........................
And then I met the Lord and sure enough he started putting His finger on my sin areas and after He had begun His work on the 'big ones', He started working on the not so big ones, Sports being the biggest of those 'not so big ones'. By the Lord's Grace, there has been change. Slow yet a positive change. The stats are fading away from memory and the new stats are not getting recorded anywhere, almost as if the disk space is full. It no longer grips me anymore, though it still interests me....a bit. But truth be told, I have just forgotten who won the French Open 2 months ago and frankly, I do not care either. My prayer now is to just take the last figment of interest also out of me. I mean, why should I bother who won what and who lost when & where. These details just end becoming a part of history and with the passage of time, are confined to the archives and for all we know, after a longer period of time, may even be deleted from there as by then new sports persons would have arrived, new records made, even new rules established rendering old player/records/details just irrelevant. Yes, I will be watching it on TV this time also, but not at the expense of my prayer time or my scripture reading or of helping my children with the home work or giving them a bath etc.
I know that all said & done, in the final analysis, the only question worth asking and reflecting upon is "where lies the eternal destiny of my soul?" .....Is it with Jesus or is it without Him? I just cannot think of the second situation as an option. Whatever is not of Him must burn away and my soul must surge faster, higher, stronger to be united with its true lover.......... ie Jesus.
And why is yours truly writing all this? Well sports have been my life long weakness (I mean besides a few other things ie) and I have grown up watching, reading and playing (not to mention dreaming) sports practically ever since I have been using my five senses. While sports cannot be compared with Mammon, yet there is something gripping about it which can lead some (like me) away from the Lord. Mind you, excess of anything is bad and can also go to the extend of being sinful. For some, it could be their daily peg of whiskey, for some their daily pack of cigarettes......For me one of the things (among a few) has always been sports. Growing up, I would never miss a World Cup, a wimbledon or a French Open, a Champinos Trophy or a Euro cup. I remember in the neighborhood I grew up, we used to play sports as per 'seasons'. If FIFA World or Euro cup was going on, we'd play football, if champions trophy was being played, our hockey sticks would be out and we would put on our tennis shoes during the time of grand slams. Of course, playing is essential and I would say, even critical to one's wholesome growth but not to the point of making it an obsession and for me it always bordered on that. I used to wake up at 3:30am to watch India-New Zealand test matches, stay awake past midnight so that I would not miss that important England-Germany football match. Of course, there were some pluses. One of which was I almost ended up becoming a sports encyclopedia. (Coz the Brain always retains what you are passionate about !). I knew all the records, all the scores and all the history-geography of sports persons, the important dates and venues etc etc etc.........................
And then I met the Lord and sure enough he started putting His finger on my sin areas and after He had begun His work on the 'big ones', He started working on the not so big ones, Sports being the biggest of those 'not so big ones'. By the Lord's Grace, there has been change. Slow yet a positive change. The stats are fading away from memory and the new stats are not getting recorded anywhere, almost as if the disk space is full. It no longer grips me anymore, though it still interests me....a bit. But truth be told, I have just forgotten who won the French Open 2 months ago and frankly, I do not care either. My prayer now is to just take the last figment of interest also out of me. I mean, why should I bother who won what and who lost when & where. These details just end becoming a part of history and with the passage of time, are confined to the archives and for all we know, after a longer period of time, may even be deleted from there as by then new sports persons would have arrived, new records made, even new rules established rendering old player/records/details just irrelevant. Yes, I will be watching it on TV this time also, but not at the expense of my prayer time or my scripture reading or of helping my children with the home work or giving them a bath etc.
I know that all said & done, in the final analysis, the only question worth asking and reflecting upon is "where lies the eternal destiny of my soul?" .....Is it with Jesus or is it without Him? I just cannot think of the second situation as an option. Whatever is not of Him must burn away and my soul must surge faster, higher, stronger to be united with its true lover.......... ie Jesus.
2 comments:
Lovely post, Anil!
Somewhere I sensed a common line running through both our posts :-)
Detachment, perhaps?
Common line?, detachment?..... Hmmmm.......May be.
It's kinda strange how I ended up writing this one up. I usually 'ideate' and chew a subject in my head, sometimes even for a few days. I had something else on my mind but I was down with fever for 3-4 days till saturday and then when I finally started writing, it ended up being this.
Thank you very much.
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