Gold Medal

I am not a sports fan, but I have been watching the winter Olympic game with my family this week. While I was watching epsecially figure sketings, I could feel the pain in my heart for the people who fell at the performances. As a performer, I could understand 100% how they would feel. They must have spent days and nights in practices to get better and make a fine performance for that day. However, stuff happenes. I do not think that it is because of their lack of practices, talents, or even luck. It just happens without a doubt. Most people try to find reasons why it happens, or to find reasons to blame. Audience and the world are very cold and sharp. They do not accept excuses or behind stories for the failures. The performer can't get a medal for sure.
On the other hand, I am so grateful that God does not give medals due to how we perform. Especially, falling is not that matter. After all, falling can be even a good thing because we get better and stronger to hold His hand tighter. And the most important thing is there is no failure in Christ! Because He already won the gold medal for us. We sometimes misunderstood that our goal is achiving the gold medal in our lives. I believe that God does not even think about the gold medal which is already achieved. He thinks about our journey to get to the final line. Like Paul, we race to get an award by God but it is not the award for the gold medal. I think that the award is for finishing the race with our best effort. Beyond that, the race itself is even not mine, it is all His!