And yet behind all that excitement of a few days’ competition lies weeks, months and years of hard work and training as competitors build up their fitness, learn technique and develop stamina. After all, no one becomes an Olympic champion by simply turning up!

This is a point reflected in the Bible when the Apostle Paul says "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?" (1 Corinthians 9.24), but he then exalts all his readers to "run in such a way as to get the prize" (25).

The problem is, that in order to win ‘the prize’ you need to be in the race, for spectators don’t naturally win prizes!

And of course the race that Paul was referring to was the Christian life, the rewards of which were immediate and profound (such as a new sense of self worth as one appreciates the love of God demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; a new sense of perspective, purpose and peace in the light of God’s good grace and the forgiveness of sins: and finally the prospect of a new start in this world and eternal life in the next). These are the rewards to which Christians aspire and to which Paul exhorts us to acquire, not because life suddenly becomes simple or easy - for in this life we will always be prone to all the natural pressures, problems and difficulties of our human existence and yet we face them with a renewed sense of faith, strength, vigour and hope as we discipline ourselves to ‘take hold of that which Christ has taken hold of us’ (Philippians 3.12).

The Olympics are a wonderful occasion and a great inspiration and thrill too many, but as we watch them, let us give a thought to that other race which Paul speaks of, and then, put our heads down and go for gold!

Yours as ever, Stephen Thorp,