At the 2012 Olympics in London, U.S. diver David Boudia brought home the gold in the 10-meter event.
Beginning Friday afternoon, Boudia looks to defend his gold. [Update: Boudia made it past the preliminary round on Friday afternoon].
I have gotten to know a lot about Boudia this week by reading his newly released biography that chronicles his athletic pursuits and Christian pilgrimage.
Tim Ellsworth, my friend and college roommate from back in the day, covers each Olympics for Baptist Press. He keeps his ear to the ground and reports on the Christian faith stories that form a vital part of the biographical narrative for dozens of members of the U.S. teams.
Tim followed Boudia’s gold medal performance and heard about his Christian faith. They struck up a friendship, and that led to a collaboration on the book: Greater Than Gold: From Olympic Heartbreak to Ultimate Redemption (Thomas Nelson, August 2016).
Winning medals is not the chief end and meaning of life for David Boudia. This became very clear in reading his biography, as the following excerpt shows:
In a sense, my diving competitions are still the height of spiritual warfare for me. Christians are always in a war against sin, but for me, that fight is more intense during competitions. If I don’t fight my sin, it’s going to annihilate me.
…I set spiritual goals as well as athletic goals. This was a total transformation from my previous life. After my conversion in 2009, my perspective wasn’t all about me and my success and trying to be a rich, famous stud. Instead, my perspective was based on bringing myself under the submission of Christ and seeing him glorified in my life.
Now that’s not to say that winning isn’t important. Just because I had become a Christian and winning was no longer my top priority doesn’t mean that I didn’t pursue it. My competitive nature still burned within me. So while God commands me to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and while he commands me to love others around me (Mark 12:30-31), that’s not at odds with a desire to win. And guess what? The Bible doesn’t say God doesn’t want me to win.
God doesn’t call me to hold back from training hard or to hold back in a competition, because that’s not pleasing to him. In fact, I think it’s contradictory to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Christians follow the Lord by doing everything with excellence because God does all things with excellence. Being excellent is a character trait of God, so when we pursue it, we are modeling ourselves after him.
When I compete, I’m doing it for the glory of God. In any given competition I can be a finger pointing to God’s goodness and a light shining on his faithfulness. I don’t have to tear others down or do whatever it takes to win. If I choose to do it that way, that’s disobedience and a perversion of what God requires of us. But to work hard and do my best, to love others around me, that brings honor to God when I’m on the platform.
Boudia and Ellsworth have written an excellent faith-and-sports narrative, well worth your time and money. I’ll be rooting on all our U.S. athletes, but will especially be tuning into the diving events this weekend.
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