Using One's Best Efforts

Today has been yet another busy week for this DYO. Monday started the week off slowly, doing general office work and preparing for EMASS (only 9 days left!). But that was not to last! Tuesday I spent visiting a number of new Corps officers to the division. This was a good opportunity for us to meet one another and spend some time in fellowship, but it was a busy day and required lots of travel time! Wednesday, I headed off to Peterborough for an EMASS meeting. Though the meeting was long, it was a good opportunity to sort out those loose ends. Yesterday I went to Stowmarket for the Divisional Welcome Meeting. Again, this was a good opportunity for fellowship with the officers of Anglia, and to spend some time in worship and prayer together.

With all this travelling, I have had the opportunity to listen to the radio and hear about the numerous Olympic controversies, disqualifications, and problems that have happened. If you haven’t been avidly following the Olympics and have switched off whenever they have been mentioned, let me sum up for you. So far there have been issues surrounding the empty seats in stadiums, and cracking down on ticket touts. There have been disqualifications in the badminton and cycling. American coaches have accused Chinese swimmers of using drugs. Plus much more!

The more shocking of these controversies for me have been the badminton disqualifications, where the Chinese, Indonesian and South Korean teams were accused of “not using one’s best efforts to win”. One of the members of the Chinese team said “We've already qualified, so why would we waste energy? It's not necessary to go out hard again when the knockout rounds are tomorrow”. Later, after they had been disqualified, one of them announced their retirement from the sport because her dream had been "heartlessly shattered".

How often in our own lives do we not give out best because we feel that it is a waste of energy? We feel that what we are doing is not worth giving our all; there may be something else we want to do, yet have to finish this first; the task may be menial and boring; and there are many other reasons we don’t always give our best. But do we ever consider that by not doing our best, there may be greater, unforeseen circumstances? The badminton players certainly didn’t. The players did not even see much wrong with their actions, and felt it was acceptable to ‘save their energy’.

God sees things differently. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10 that we should do everything for the glory of God, not causing others to stumble (verses 31 & 32). Whatever we do in life, we should do it as if we were completing the task for God himself – yes, even those boring tasks! And we should not cause others to stumble – the South Korean badminton teams admitted that it was the influence of the Chinese team that influenced their actions.

We never know who may be watching us, and so we should always do our best, knowing that we are not causing others to stumble and encouraging them, too, to work their best.

How much would thinking in this way change how you currently live your life? Remember to leave any comments and thoughts you have!