With All Your Strength

As the Olympics were approaching, I began thinking about what it takes to be truly great.

My admiration for Olympic athletes becomes overwhelming as I consider the journey that brought them to this point. For years they have trained, devoting unbelievable amounts of time and energy to their task. We see Olympians as heroes because we recognize that they have the sort of self-discipline that makes anything seem possible.
As the Games draw near, I’ve come to dread reading the sports page. I know that the officials will test the athletes, and inevitably they will find that some have cheated by taking steroids or other drugs. Each time it happens I feel let down. I had asked these people to be my heroes, my role models of self-discipline, and then I find that they too are susceptible to moments of weakness when the pressure is on.

Most of us will never be Olympians. We are not, in fact, likely to be at the very top of any field. I lamented this fact to a friend the other day.

He responded wisely. “To be that kind of athlete, you must be willing to sacrifice everything else in your life. Everything. Olympians rarely lead balanced lives because they choose to be single-minded.”

“Yes,” I said, “But is that so different than the Christian life? We are called to be single-minded in our pursuit of God, to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our strength. And we must be willing to sacrifice everything else in life to pursue this one goal. Couldn’t Olympic athletes be role models for us in our faith walk?”

“Its about priorities,” he said. “What matters enough to you that you would be willing to fully commit to it? What is so important that you would stick with it despite pain and boredom and exhaustion?”

I had no answer.

Then I saw the news today that John Edwards had admitted to an extramarital affair. He was on the campaign trail; his wife had cancer; and the stress of the situation must have made their marriage more difficult. When the going got tough, he lacked the self-discipline to stick with the commitment that he had made. Once again, I felt the child-like disappointment of watching a hero defeated, not by an enemy but by his own lack of self-control.

That’s when it occurred to me. What matters enough to me that I would be willing to sacrifice everything else for it? The answer is marriage. Marriage is one commitment that helps us learn how to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our strength.

We ask our politicians to be dedicated to our country. We require that they be single-minded in their pursuit of sound policies. We expect them to be on the campaign trail endlessly for months or even years. We worry ceaselessly about their priorities – Will they value free trade over jobs? Will they value the poor over the middle class? Will they value the environment over big business? Every pundit and voter wonders: Where do their loyalties lie?

I don’t mean to let John Edwards off the hook. Infidelity is a terrible sin, no matter the context in which it is committed. But we, as faithful democrats, must examine our own role in telling leaders where their loyalties should lie. I believe it is no coincidence that great leaders are often unfaithful to their marriages (Bill Clinton, Ted Haggard, Martin Luther King, Jr.). We ask our pastors and politicians alike to sacrifice everything for the sake of their flock. Why then are we surprised when they do just that?