Olympic Pole Vault

One more Olympic-year post.

I think it was Pete Briscoe that I heard share this insight on pole vaulting, the event where athlete's sprint down a narrow runway, holding a skinny rod of plastic and then launch themselves 20 feet in the air to clear a horizontal bar. Crazy, but they do it.

Well, not everyone.

Some people look up at the bar, shake their heads and then walk away. Impossible.

Some people ask to change the rules - lower the bar to a height where they can simply step over it without the pole. Dilutes the challenge and ignores the other participants, but it makes them feel better.

And some people just say, "Hand me the pole" and race down the runway at full tilt - like they believe it.

You have to believe something in order to run toward a 20 foot bar with a pole in your hand.

It's doable. It seems impossible, but with a healthy dose of insight - faith and trust in the process and whoever put the landing pad on the other side - why not take the leap?

Have a relationship with God, for eternity?

"Impossible" feels inadequate to that task and never actually asks the questions - how might this actually be true, and what must I believe? They prefer to keep looking for a more appealing event.

"Rule changer" has just as much doubt as "impossible" but still wants what the other participants are after - and so asks for a lower bar; They reason, "I don't think God actually meant for us to  repent, or change our lifestyle just to follow in the ways of Jesus."   

"Faithful" looks at the bar of sinlessness with humility and realizes that no amount of technical training or exercise is ever going to qualify them for this event -  for all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23).  They're in no better condition than "impossible" or "rule changer," and they know it. But there they are still running headlong down the runway toward an impossible height. Why is that? They will never make it on their own...

That skinny plastic pole that Christians hang on to and fling themselves heavenward on, is called Grace. It's the perfect gift we get that we don't deserve. We're not elite athletes - in fact, we're just like anyone else - same flaws, same fears.

But the guy at the end of the runway handing out the poles? His name is Jesus.

"With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

What do you believe?  

Alpha and Omega - Jesus, or God ?

Jesus allowed people to identify him as God.

His disciple Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God !" John 20:28

And Jesus himself said, "I and the Father are one."  John 10:30

 Sometimes people are tempted to explain this away and suggest that Christianity is a belief of multiple gods, or that Jesus was a 'lesser' god.

But here are two verses that cut right to the heart of the matter.

In the old testament, the prophet Isaiah is instructed by God to explain:

"This is what the Lord says, Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:

   I am the first and the last; apart from me there is no God."  Isaiah 44:6

That's God with a big "G" and it clearly teaches 1 God.

Then in the final book of the Bible, Jesus says,

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the end."  Revelation 21:5

Jesus uses the very words of the old testament prophecy to explain who he is.

The Believers of the Bible are monotheistic - that is, belief in one God.

 So, Jesus claimed to be as One with God the Father Almighty - and allowed his followers to say so.

We can too.

What do you believe?