Saturday 11 August 2012

Usain Bolt's Moment to Himself (2)

I should have said that Mr Bolt's display of devotion is a great example of the partnership between faith and endeavour in any field.

Usain Bolt thanks God for his gifts, for his amazing build and natural advantages in running very fast. But if he ate only pot noodles and trained by watching "Loose Women" (I presume there must be a Jamaican vesion?) he would not be the fastest runner on the planet. He gives thanks to his God, and he trains.

The dichotomy between trying and praying is more brought out by silly people at extremes than by sensible people, of faith or not, in the middle. So the vast majority oft Christians with a friend who is ill would pray they got better, and counsel seeing a doctor. A Christiam laying in bed feeling hungry would be better off gettitng up and making some breakfast, than laying in bed and praying for cornflakes to rain down from the ceiling. A sensible believer will pray for strength to get through the day and wisdom to make good decisions at work. They won't spend eight hours praying for God to stack the shelves, work the photocopier or give training sessions for them.

If that sounds like having your cake and eating it, then frankly that would be the ideal cake. In Him we live and move and have our being. If you can split the natural cleanly from the divine, you're a cleverer theologian than I am. You'll notice I only said a "cleverer" one.

2 comments :

  1. I note they all cross themselves and mutter incantations before the race, but I wonder if God gets the blame if they lose?

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  2. Lot's of Christianity around the Olympics, so why should we be surprised?

    Given that Christianity (despite the claims of Islam) remains the majority religion world wide.

    Perhaps our surprise is that so many, not inhibited by being English, are able to express their faith openly - something that we blanch at. We don't wear our hearts on our sleeve, no more than we make external signs of Christianity.

    Perhaps we are inhibited by our natural reluctance to make a show, and perhaps it's time we abandoned it in favour of being open about our faiths and beliefs.

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