"God answers my prayers everywhere except on the golf-course."
Patience
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. I Timothy 1:16Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won silver medals in the marathon in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics but she had to wait until she was 30 to get her chance. She told me that was the biggest disappointment of her life: “The biggest disappointment in my running career was when I didn’t make the team for the Olympics in 2000. I was ready for it, I was committed, I was qualified for it and I trained for it. But the Kenyan Federation replaced my name with somebody else who had not run in the trials. It was so painful but all I said was this is not God’s time. I was sure His time would be right”.
I was very struck by the way she accepted it by saying simply that it was not God’s time. Rather than being resentful of the Kenyan Olympic Committee, she accepted it as God’s will.
The secret is undoubtedly in her relationship with Jesus, “I thank God, when I came to know Jesus I knew that I have a friend, a friend who is always there with me, somebody who understands me even when nobody can understand me. He understands my pains, everything”.
Paul says that Jesus’ immense patience in his dealings with Paul is to be an example for us. Sport and life give us many opportunities to learn and display patience. Let us remember Christ’s example when situations requiring patience arise.