"Who am I if I'm not a skier?"-Lindsay Vonn

Let me first start by saying that I've been totally riveted by the Winter Olympics this year. I never really thought that I would care about 'Men's Nordic Finals' or 'Women's Curling', but I simply can't get enough of these Olympic Winter Games (NBC is praising God that most people are feeling that way...it's really all they've got).

Interestingly, though, I caught a short interview with downhill skier, Lindsay Vonn before the Olympics started this year, and she casually said something that made me pause and think more deeply about where our significance comes from and what I really believe success is in light of my view of God. In the midst of answering a few questions from an NBC reporter, she said, "who am I if I'm not a skier?"

Vonn, of course, probably communicated that without much thought in an attempt to validate who she is and what she does as a profession, but it really struck me that in her reality, being a skier is all of who she is...at least in her mind. That is, however, simply not true.

There is much more to Lindsay Vonn than just being a skier and perhaps one day (I hope) she will come to that realization without a tragedy befalling her. Ironically, she fell yesterday on the downhill slope and broke her right pinky finger, so we'll have to wait and see if this subsequently effects her skiing in the immediate future.

C.S. Lewis once said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." How backward is that in comparison to everything else taught by the communicators of this world? Our significance cannot come from what we do and rest wholeheartedly on the performances we put out day after day, it must come from another place (a heavenly place) that once understood in its purest sense, alleviates the need and pressure to try harder all the time.

The Olympics have opened my eyes to how much value we place on performance. Notice I said we. I am 100% guilty of validating my life based upon how good I've performed in a given situation. But after connecting with the truth that God accepts me for who I am (a retched sinner, saved by the perfection of Jesus Christ alone), my performance barometer begins to loose its effect when I think about what kind of person I am.