Lance Armstrong was hailed as a true sporting campion. The seven-time winner of the Tour de France and cancer survivor was a mentor to millions. He wrote two books and was a popular motivational speaker. When he was found to have used performance enhancing drugs, he was stripped of all has Tour de France titles and banned from professional sports. Someone joked: “I saw my librarian take his books out the Non-fiction Section and put them among the Fiction books. ”He continued to deny any wrongdoing until those close to him ‘blew the whistle’ on him. Lance could live with a rotten conscience, others could not. You have to wonder how Lance Armstrong feels about being considered one of the most infamous cheats in sporting history. Many Christians try to do the “Christian Race” the same way Lance did cycling. But you cannot cheat your way into heaven. Paul makes that point when he states:“Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules” (2Tim.2:5).The favourite religious performance enhancing drug has always been “The wisdom of this world.’Peter instructs us to look to God for words of wisdom, and for strength to serve:“Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies” (1Pet.4:11).The devil offered Jesus an opportunity to show his divine prowess by turning stones into bread. Jesus was competing for the souls of men. He wanted no advice on sustenance from his enemy. But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Mt.4:4). As for me…I am in this to win!“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim;…I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1Cor.9:24-27).
John Staiger
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