Olympic Spirit

Bulletin board at the Middle School keeping track of medals

The Olympic spirit.  It seems that no matter where I turn these days there is talk of the Olympics.  Many of our students and staff are cheering for multiple countries which makes it even more exciting.  For example – should I cheer for the US? For France? For Germany? Whether it is hearing which athlete(s) or which countries are making the news that day or watching events in our staff room during breaks or having friendly competitions between Canadian, American, Austrian, German, etc fans the Olympic spirit seems to have taken over our school.  It is contagious.  You can’t help but want to enter in.  What country will get the most medals?  Which competitors will make their dreams come true and which ones will see them end?  The world is watching and it is hard to remain distant or uninterested, even when you know you should be grading or writing lesson plans. :)

Or what about the contagious school spirit at the last home basketball game of the season? After a very close and tense game, our BFA Falcons won by one point in the last seconds of the game.  It is hard to not get caught up in the spirit of the moment! (Thank you to Lexi for the video!)

This past week in my Bible 7 class, while talking about the story of Moses sending the 12 spies into the land of Canaan, we learned about a different kind of spirit.  This spirit is also contagious but instead of pushing people upward to pursue their dreams, it is a spirit that contaminates and poisons those around them.

God had made a promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.  Now here were the people of God, delivered from the bondage of slavery, led by Moses through the Red Sea to the borders of the Promised Land.  They were about to win the gold medal of all gold medals, to enter into everything God had promised.  What an amazing and exciting moment it should have been.  Those who had been enslaved were free and looking to conquer the land that had been promised to them.  But before marching into enemy territory Moses sent 12 spies to see what they were up against. 

You know the story – the 12 spies came back and 10 of them only had one thing to report – there were giants in the land.  However, the other two saw opportunity and the amazing promises of God being fulfilled.  I used to focus on the fact that there were only TWO who saw the promises of God and TEN (the number used to always seem big to me) who saw giants.  I mean what chance did Joshua and Caleb have? 

But this time I saw it in a new light. Based on the word of ONLY ten men, an entire nation was convinced to not go for the gold, the Promised Land. The land promised by none other than God Himself!  These ten men convinced hundreds of thousands of men and their families to disqualify themselves from the race before they even made an attempt.  Scripture gives us no indication that anyone except Joshua and Caleb questioned the report of these ten men. Instead we are told that they began weeping and grumbling against Moses and Aaron, pining for the “good ole days” of Egypt and even trying to stone Joshua and Caleb. 

What a tragic story!  They were so close to getting the gold, so close to entering into the full promises of God, but they let a poisonous spirit seep in.  It is a spirit that can still take over a classroom, a family, an office, etc.  I see too much of my own sinful heart in these cowardly men but by and through His power, I pray that I will make the courageous choice and always go for the gold, following in the footsteps of Joshua and Caleb, knowing that victory (winning the gold) is not based on my own ability but on the character and promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.