Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval…By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice… By faith Abraham obeyed… By faith Moses was hidden by his parents… By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land… By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish… And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets… Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus…

-excerpted from Hebrews 11-12

Have you been watching the Olympics? What an incredible display of athleticism! 

Simone Biles did flips that no one else can even attempt, earning her three gymnastics gold medals this year alone. The US Women’s Swimming 4x100 medley relay set a world record, finishing nearly three seconds ahead of the next team. Noah Lyles came from last to finish first in the Men’s 100m dash, earning himself the title of fastest man on Earth. 

And it’s not just American athletes who are doing incredible things. A runner from St. Lucia received her country’s very first olympic medal as she won the women’s 100m dash. Boxer Cindy Ngamba, who fled Cameroon at age 11, clinched the Refugee Team its first medal ever. Lola Anderson, a British rower, shared about her late father encouraging her to pursue her dream as she and her team won gold.

I would simply run out of room to list all the incredible moments, the hard-won victories, the gracious defeats, the heart-warming stories. There is so much to say about these few weeks of competition.

Most of the time, when I watch these athletes excel, I feel overwhelmed by how much they can do that I cannot. It would take me minutes, not seconds, to swim 50 meters. I could do a single somersault, not a series of handsprings and flips and cartwheels. I could run 100m, but I’d still be pushing off the starting block as the Olympians cleared the finish line. I’d lose table tennis so quickly that I might actually get a record for it. I would be an embarrassment to the American team, in other words.

I wonder if that’s how the early Christians felt when they compared themselves to their predecessors in faith, and why the author of Hebrews decided to write the passage we find in chapters 11 and 12. I mean, come on, who could compare to Moses or Miriam? To Abraham and Sarah? To Deborah, Gideon, Nathan, or Esther? It’s like doing the doggy paddle in the 800m freestyle.

But the author of Hebrews (we don’t know who that was, by the way) has a better idea. Instead of seeing our ancestors in faith as standards to compete with, let us see them as the crowd cheering us on. Olympic Breakdancing might be a competition, but discipleship is not. God gives us the faith we need, and our fellow Christians surround us in encouragement. We have a team, and it’s a pretty great one. We are together, by God’s grace, running the race and cheering each other on until we reach the finish line-- looking to Jesus all the way.