— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —
Might as well admit that I did not watch any of the most recent world soccer championship games. Nor any of the Olympics. Instead, my research team and I followed a lead from some middle school students that seemed to indicate that what I had thought of as a personal decrease in interest in high-end sports was in fact a much more widespread phenomenon. “So Ronaldo is a divine footballer, and I should think of him as heroic” wrote one student. “What about his trainer? His physiotherapist? His personal cook and caterer? They have a part in his success, too, don’t they?”
Apart from the fact that this student, perhaps unwittingly and certainly inavoidably, echoed Bertolt Brecht’s “Questions of a reading Worker”, the critique voiced here is both timely, and important: like in so many other fields, we seem to have maxed out on pursuable aims. On reachable stars. On sense-making itself.
“You can do it if you really want” – there are few propaganda slogans as vicious as this one. Because if you find out that no, you can’t do it, then you did not want it hard enough. If your prayers are not answered, you did not pray hard enough. If you are in pain, or if you are not economically successful, God does not love you.
The students we interviewed turned away from the very idea of sports heroism, and on having sports heroes as their idols, in vast numbers. If our findings are correct, then the majority of this coming generation will refuse to accept hysterical payloads for participants in hyperstructured competitions that are supposed to compensate the masses for their lack of real life, real joy, real love, and real adventures.
What is it we can do, if we really want? Some answers may be gleaned from a look at the Special Olympics World Games that just ended. Yes, some of them struggled really hard to win, or at least to gain medal places. But the majority of these mostly young people were obviously happy to simply be there, joyfully basking in the positive response from their erstwhile competitors and the audience, Their approach to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was focused on the experience – and more often than not that seemed to encompass not just themselves, but their environment.
The overwhelmingly positive images to come out of these games can be contagious, if we let them grow into a beautiful pandemic. What is it we want to see? My personal hero is the sprinter who at one point decided to finish the race on all fours. Of course he came in last. But it was what he really wanted to do. And he could do it. And God’s love was right there.
The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.
Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.
We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.
Freiburg Anglican Church 