By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles came at a time when the United States had not participated in the Games for some time. The United States had boycotted the 1980 Games held in Moscow because of political tension. Thus, many of the athletes who would have competed in 1980 had to stay in top physical condition if they planned to compete in 1984. They had to keep training for eight years to appear on the world stage of competition.
Rowdy Gaines was one of those athletes. For eight long years, he trained to swim in the 1984 Games. Eight long years were spent getting up each day, diving into a cold pool and swimming lap after lap to be conditioned for the Games. When all the laps he swam during those eight long years were added up, he had actually swum 20,000 miles in training.
All that training culminated in a 100-meter freestyle swim that he won with a time of 49.8 seconds. Think of that for a moment: 20,000 miles just to swim for 49.8 seconds. That is the long game. Preparing for those few seconds required playing the long game in order to achieve that victory.
As Christians, we can identify. We have waited for years for the second coming of Jesus. We have waited through all sorts of signs of the times mentioned in the Bible: wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, earthquakes and many other troubled times. We have also seen many wonderful things happen as the gospel has spread throughout the world. It still has a way to go, but progress is being made all the time as the gospel enters new places. Yet Jesus has not come as of yet.
We know, however, that He is coming and that things will change. Paul, writing about the second coming of Jesus, wrote:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).
I think the twinkling of an eye is even faster than 49.8 seconds. That twinkling of an eye will come to all humanity after a very long time, at least in human terms.
Let us keep walking with Jesus each day. We do not know when the twinkling of an eye will happen. We do know that as we walk each day with Jesus and rest in His completed work for us, that change will happen quickly, and we will forever be with Jesus.