Graeme Schache
We are All Part of God’s Amazing Creation…
Living in the reality that we are made by God and belong to Him can have beautiful implications for our life. Mr Nelson shared with Middle and Senior School that one of Australia’s past Olympic champion swimmers – Stephanie Rice has experienced a crisis of identity and meaning over the past while. She achieved her ultimate dream and goal of being an Olympic champion at age 24 – winning three Gold medals at the Beijing games – all in World record time. This actually saw her inducted into the International Hall of Fame for swimming and awarded an OAM (Order of Australia Medal).
Our culture holds this type of achievement up as the pinnacle of what we can aspire to as humans. It certainly is an outstanding achievement but as Stephanie can attest to - it is not where ultimate fulfilment is to be found. She presently struggles to find her way through life in a meaningful manner. She reached the top and now is left wondering if there is more to life. She is somewhat lost, lacking direction, not sure what to value anymore, and struggling to find purpose…
As we live as God ‘s children, experiencing his love and care we can be assured there is purpose in all we do. This may involve winning medals at the Olympics as Nicola McDermott did recently in the High Jump. She pursued her dream of Athletic excellence and did this so as to give honour to the creator of the universe and to inspire others, not for her own glory. In doing this, Nicola lived out what it is to receive God’s love and care and share this with others.
A wise word on this is shared by author David Orr when he says – ‘The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, story tellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage.... And these qualities have little to do with success as our culture defines it.’
