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.

Sounding Off

If you're a fan of the Washington Redskins, you might have been following this week's saga about running back, Clinton Portis. CP voiced his displeasure over getting benched in last week's loss to the Baltimore Ravens, making his complaint known very publicly in an interview with a local sports talk radio show. Naturally, coach Jim Zorn wasn't particularly happy about this - he would have preferred that Portis' issues would first be brought to him before being publicly expressed. Clinton's response - "he's just expressing his opinion"

Now, it's easy to dismiss this as another episode from a spoiled professional athlete. But, have you ever done something like that? Maybe you didn't express your frustration over talk radio but what about complaining over the water cooler with a few of your colleagues? Have you ever had a problem with your boss but instead of speaking directly with him, you chose to express your "opinion" with others? Here's another twist - do you find it easier to fire a terse email rather than to speaking directly with the person concerned?

If so, you're like many of us. It's so easy to see the foolishness in Clinton Portis' response, but not quite as easy to acknowledge similar sinful behavior in ourselves. Aren't you glad that God doesn't judge us in the same manner that we judge others? This isn't about condoning Portis' actions or response - it's about how we can use the his poor example as a window into our own sinful hearts... and through repentance and faith toward God, change the way we communicate at work.

March Madness - Ready for the Final Four?

No, not that Final Four. I'm talking about the Final Four of the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Tournament.

I love cheering for the underdog so it's no surprise that this story caught my eye. Apparently, Miami Dade Community College has beaten out a number of schools to reach this point, including Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Northwestern.

Here's a quote from the story.

"They're formidable players," said Jim Stallings, University of Texas-Dallas' director for chess and education. "You can't just take anybody for granted in this tournament, because they are the top four U.S. teams."

They accomplished this even with setbacks like having one of their players bolt for University of Maryland, Baltimore County, lured by the promise of a scholarship. Aren't there rules against this kind of tampering?

Beating out Ivy Leaguers has to be somewhat equivalent to George Mason beating out powerhouses UConn, UNC and Michigan State in last year's NCAA tournament. (As a GMU grad, I had to find a way to work last year's Final Four run into this post).

Like I said, I love cheering for the underdog, even if the "sport" is intercollegiate chess. Do you think it'll be on ESPN?