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I really enjoyed watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. I remember watching ceremonies for previous games with my family as a kid, but as an adult, I haven’t really made time for them. In fact, I don’t watch much Olympic coverage anymore. I follow the headlines, and if something looks really interesting, I can usually find it online and watch it back. This time around, I found myself watching most of it. I admit that I used the fast-forward button after seeing each country’s uniforms to skip to the next one. There was also one song-and-dance number in the second half I “skimmed,” and I could have lived without Mariah Carey’s cameo. Aside from that, I thought the opening choreography and storytelling were great, and Andrea Bocelli's rendition of Nessun Dorma was, frankly, breathtaking.
The only sports I’ve actually had time to watch are some women’s luge and some men’s downhill skiing. I know very little about either, so I had to trust the commentators to explain things. At some point, I will have to watch some figure skating. I’m not a big fan of figure skating, but we always watched it when I was a child because it was my mother’s favorite. I hear we have a men’s skating champion who has been redefining the entire sport. It feels like something to see, so I’ll track him down eventually.
The Olympics are one of the most hopeful things we do on this little planet of ours. I do think that sports help us get beyond the political divisions we face. People decry the politics of the Olympics and the athletes that compete in them, but these games have always contained political flavors and motivations. They help us get beyond politics at times, but they can and will never be divorced from them. Nonetheless, the games represent the best inclinations of human beings at their best. Sure, there are athletes at the top of their sport who strive for gold and nothing less, but there are far more athletes who go into the games aware that they won’t win. Many athletes are truly happy just to be there, to represent their country, and to do the best job they can. For most of them, and for most of us, that’s enough.
We’re impressed by the fastest, the strongest, the most accurate – whatever the measure is that leads to glory in sports; that’s one of the reasons we watch. Top amateur and professional athletes are truly the exception to the rule when it comes to what human beings can do. Most of us aren’t and won’t be the best at much of anything. There will almost always be someone smarter, stronger, more talented, more lucky, more attractive – you name it. We know those things aren’t really what life is all about, though. It’s a lesson we try to share with our kids, hopefully because we’ve learned it for ourselves. There’s a big difference between being “the best” and being “our best.”
That’s not to chop up life into a series of participation trophies. It’s much more than that if we understand the opportunities and invitations that God places before us. We learn about hard work and excellence along the way—the striving matters. The outcomes do, too, but they don’t always have to result in a gold medal or an award of any kind. We don’t have to be perfect; we just have to be faithful, putting faith in ourselves, and more importantly, in God. God has never demanded perfection from us, only that we strive to be faithful. Faithfulness ebbs and flows, falters and soars. It is a journey, not a static way of being. We are the majority who strive and live, not as the best, but as those who are grateful to live at all, and grateful to be blessed by God. That is more than enough to find meaning in our lives.
As the Olympic Games continue, I will continue to root for the Americans to win as often as they can, because that’s our team. But I will also celebrate with those athletes who I see get excited about their PRs or their ability to outperform expectations, even if they come up short of the bronze. We do a really good job at counting the medals every time the Olympics come around, but the rewards on display are much greater than those that get worn around the neck. Each athlete is an amazing individual with unique stories and experiences, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to see them all do what they love. Apart from those who get close and then fall short, which is heartbreaking, many of the folks I see on screen are filled with joy – as they should be.
The song that Bocelli sang at the opening ceremony, from Puccini’s Turandot, is sung by Princess Turandot’s suitor, who answered three riddles correctly to be able to marry her. She didn’t want to marry him, so he offered that if she could guess his name, he’d kill himself the next day instead of moving forward with the marriage. He hopes to win her love before the dawn. That night, he sings to her about the game they’re playing, and the song ends with his assurance, “I will win, I will win, I will win!” And he does. It turns out love is the key, as Princess Turandot decides for herself.
We’re all playing to win, and we’re all winners already. We have already won God’s love and been given gifts beyond measure. Some of those gifts are the people we share this life with. We show that same love when we strive and try, even when we fall short of first place or perfection. What we do to show and receive love is the key to a well-lived life. A life well lived isn’t perfect, and no one promised it would be. Loving each day and the people we share them with is the key. Realizing such truth will allow us to see just how often we do win, even if we don’t have medals to show for it. We have much more.
