2,276 Miles You Can't Fake
18 July, 2015
I love watching the Tour de France. I grew up as a swimmer in high school and college, and I have a special passion for individual sports. Swimming, biking, running, gymnastics, wrestling, golf, tennis... there's no team, necessarily, in those sports, and success comes from nothing but personal effort. Although team sports offer camaraderie and interconnectedness individual sports don't, there's something about one-man sports which proves character like nothing else.
There's no riding the coattails on someone's back. There's no sitting on the bench. There's no worrying about other people. It's just you and the bike, or the swim lane, or the golf hole, or the gymnasics beams. No one else, just you.
It was easy to pinpoint who was best in the sport of swimming. It all came down to who had the fastest times. Some people were specifically sprint freestylers, others backstrokers, others butterfliers... and everyone knew who was best in each event. The times swimmers had previously recorded were accurately divided in order to have slower swimmers race slower swimmers and faster swimmers race faster swimmers.
Needless to say, there were no guessing games about who was better. If you were in heat 10, you were faster than heat 1. The proof was in the pudding, and it's the same for the Tour. There's no guessing who's the best biker - it's obvious by looking at the rankings of each stage. Currently, a man from Britain named Chris Froome is about 2 minutes ahead of everyone else. He's the best. He worked the hardest. He's the most talented. He's #1.
I think I'm drawn to competing in and watching individual sports because, well, it's so different than everyday life. Life is all about advantage: the family we're born into, the trust fund we're given, the country we live in, the appearance we have... Life, unfortunately, can be less about hard work and determination and more about the deck of cards we're given.
That's not to say there's no outliers who overcome the odds and achieve things outside the norm, but for the most part, advantages given early in life can lead to greater success.
As humans, we're prone to jealousy. No matter who we are or where we come from, there's always someone cooler, prettier, and richer... there's always someone doing more charity work, making wiser stock portfolio choices, and traveling to more outrageous locations. Many of us have an engrained "keeping up with the Jones's" mindet which never seems to subside. No matter how skinny, rich, famous, or popular we find ourselves, there's always someone we deem as "better."
That's exactly why I'm so drawn to the Tour. There's no shortcuts to becoming the best. It's won by hard work and determination, not by being born with a special last name or having a trust fund of $350 million. Each year's winner of the Tour wins by nothing but their own strength.
Imagine if the winner didn't have to work hard. Imagine if, instead of training for hours every day, they laid on the couch, but still won the race. How angry would their competitors be? Imagine if it was something like this...
Obviously that was a prank - but it's a good analogy for life sometimes. Some people who don't work hard find themselves in positions they didn't earn, just like the men in the video out on a joy ride whom received a parade they didn't deserve.
Although living in this world can involve chains of jealousy by seeing people who don't deserve parades receiving (metaphorical) parades, becoming a Christian can ease that pain. Jesus, the son of God Himself, was the only person in the history of the entire world who never sinned once. Did He deserve a brutal death? Anything but.
Because Jesus, the man who deserved more parades than everyone combined, humbled Himself and accepted an undeserved punishment, we, as His followers, can use His strength to overcome the jealousy of this world. In the Bible, Jesus explains how "the last will be first and the first will be last." So basically, those whom have lived lives of suffering, while remaining strong in the faith, will live an eternal life of joy. Some of the very people we're jealous of today will (as hard as it is to say) spend eternity in darkness.
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done." Revelation 22:12
This life is unfair, there's no doubt about it. But the silver lining is... eternity is NOT unfair. Jesus shares how He'll reward all those who remained faithful and worked diligently for Him. Heaven is much like the Tour de France. Those who work hard will find themselves with a medal around their neck and flowers in their hands. Just like the Tour cyclists practice day-in and day-out to be the best, Christians are to:
- trust in the name of Jesus
- work diligently as His servants
- be the best examples they can be
No shortcuts. No sitting on the bench. Once we hit the beginning of eternity, our hard work will all come into the light, and all will receive exactly what they deserve. Be encouraged and continue to work hard, friends. One day, it'll all be worth it.
