What Would Make You Give Away Your Medal?

This an absolutely fascinating story - it was just confirmed that, at the Beijing Olympics, American sprinter, Shawn Crawford gave up his silver medal to Churandy Martina, a sprinter from Netherlands Antilles. Martina had initially finished second but was disqualified for a lane violation. Shawn Crawford received the silver medal but later gave the medal away to Martina. Get this - he didn't have to do it, no one coerced him, no one would think less of him if he kept the medal. After all, "rules are rules", right?

Let's map this to what it might look like in your life, or mine. Would you give up the lavish year end bonus to a co-worker because you truly thought he deserved it more? How about highlighting the contributions of one of your office "rivals", knowing that it means that he'll get most of the credit for the project? That's crazy talk, for most of us.

What would make us forsake personal gain, to bless someone else? Perhaps just the sense of "doing the right thing" would be enough, for some. But frankly, giving up an Olympic medal isn't something I would do unless I could gain a greater reward. What reward would be greater than getting that coveted promotion or your personal "olympic medal"?

David offers an answer in Psalm 16:5 - "the LORD is my chosen portion and my cup" and he follows it up with this statement - "the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places". David is boldly declaring that God is the treasure of his heart. And, by the way, in case you were wondering, he considers himself fortunate that it worked out that way.

I don't know what truly motivated Shawn Crawford but I know this - when we have Christ, we have the best that this world has ever seen. We have a relationship with the Eternal God, sins forgiven, peace in the deep recesses of our hearts. Giving up our personal medals become a lot easier when we have something much better. It'll also make the world stop and ask us why.