Daily Thoughts about God Posts

By John Grant

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.1 Corinthians 9:25

daily devotionalOur eyes are glued to the television to see the very best of the very best. We are watching amazing athletes.  Not a one got to the Olympics by being unfocused and undisciplined.  Dreams of gold can’t be realized without incredibly long hard days and years of focused training.

I remember as a teenager watching a young girl train for a position on the USA Olympic Team. She practiced over and over again day after day and week after week, just to make the team. It is often a fraction of a second that separates a gold medalist from a no medalist. After years of training, it is over in just a few minutes.

Why do they do it? Is it the sheer joy of being the best of the best? Is it to get their face on a cereal box? Whatever it is, there’s nothing new about it, as it has been going on for hundreds of years.

Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth and drew an imagery from athletic competition and the Isthmian games. He compares himself to an athlete who is running a race, and to an athlete who is training to compete. In athletics, it’s impossible to do both at the same time. The athlete trains until he or she reaches maximum ability and then runs the race. But for us, our lives are continually under construction. We are like athletes training for competition, even while we are in the midst of the race.

Most of us can probably identify with the thought of running through life. Life is a “rat race,” and we’re always “on the run.” Life is exhausting, and you just have to keep going.

For Paul, however, racing is different from merely running. Life has a goal, and it is toward that goal that Paul runs. At the end of the race – or the fight – is the prize. Just what is it that we hope our running accomplishes? What is the prize at the end of the race? Power? Prestige? Possessions?  Comfort or security?

Athletes competed for a wreath of pine or olive branches. Paul is running for an imperishable wreath. The imperishable wreath is the goal of the Christian enterprise: life forever in the kingdom of God and that is a crown that lasts forever.
(a thought on life from John Grant )

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2012/08/11/jg_crown-that-lasts-forever/

John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney
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Thoughts by All thoughts by John Grant Thoughts by Men

by John Grant

When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me? ” Genesis 29:25

Laban had two daughters, Rachel and Leah. The former was gorgeous and the latter had what the writer of Genesis calls an eye problem. Jacob was smitten by Rachel and offered to Laban to work seven years for free in order to have Rachel in marriage.

When the seven years free labor had been given and the wedding occurred, there was a bait and switch, with Jacob getting Leah instead of Rachel. Jacob had a total longing and focus on Rachel. Why? His life was empty. He had lost his father’s love, he had lost his beloved mother’s love and he certainly showed no sense of God’s love.

When he saw Rachel, he thought that if he could just have her, then everything would be right in his miserable life.

Life is like that. Perhaps C.S. Lewis said it best: “Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.”

We live in a world that idolizes the empty promises of money, sex and power. If we can just have this or that, everything will be wonderful. We are motivated by power, possession, prestige and position, but we get there only to find an emptiness. Alexander the Great was in his thirties when he had conquered all of the then known world and cried out in anguish: “Are there no more worlds to conquer?”

The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but it is a whole lot more difficult to mow!

The bottom line of all of this is that as long as anything other than a true worshipful and serving relationship with God, whatever we chase, will be disappointed in the end. We will chase Rachel only to wake up and find out we have Leah.

I saw a billboard this week that said: “Life is a race; enjoy it to the fullest.” Life is not a race. It is a fulfillment…. a fulfillment of the person God uniquely created us to be, so let us keep our eyes on Him and live life it to the utmost.
(a thought on life from John Grant )

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2012/07/30/jg_chasing-rachel-and-getting-leah/

John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

Thoughts by All thoughts by John Grant Thoughts by Men