Earlier this year, when the Winter Olympics were going on, I read about the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, the swimmer Michael Phelps. It’s hard to overstate his Olympic dominance. He’s won a total of 28 medals (23 of them gold), which means that by himself, he’s won more medals than 91 nations have won in their entire histories.
But these victories weren’t without cost.
During his peak training season, Phelps would swim 12 miles a day. To fuel that intense training, he would eat 12,000 calories—daily. For over a decade, every moment of every day was structured around one goal—become the best Olympian ever. And to his credit, he did it.
Maybe Phelps will remain on top of the Olympian leaderboards forever. Probably not. One day many, if not all, of his records will be broken. Our children won’t recognize his name. And his medals will decay. But his example of discipline prompts a question for us.
Here’s how Paul put it In 1 Corinthians 9: If athletes train with this kind of intensity and discipline, how much more should we, God’s people, be willing to discipline our lives for the souls of people that last forever—the souls of our neighbors, our coworkers, and our grandkids?
This call to discipline impacts how the church should think about and organize itself in three ways. Read More
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