Carl Lewis won four gold medals in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Despite his outstanding performance, he was accused of holding back in the long jump. Instead of going for the world record, he stopped competing after his first jump, confident that he would win the gold. Carl said that the Olympic trials had taken more out of him than he had expected, so he decided to save his strength for the other events. He explained that he was there to win gold medals—not to set records that would probably last only a short time.

This reminds me of what the Bible says about making the choice to use our time and energy for actions that have lasting value. The people in the church at Laodicea failed to do this (Revelation 3:14-22). Our Lord saw that their values were misplaced, for they took pride in their riches and self-sufficiency. So He told them they were lukewarm spiritually and were not relying on God (vv.15-17). They had to decide—would they keep pursuing temporal things, or would they go for the eternal gold of God's approval?

That's the challenge we face today. Our task is not to please the people around us. Our purpose is to win the eternal approval of our Lord.    — Mart De Haan