True Gold

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   I don't know how many of you took the time out of your schedules to watch any of the Winter Olympics over the course of the last few weeks. For me the most moving moment came at the end of the games. Sunday morning, for the first time in 46 years, the U.S. men's hockey team clinched the gold medal, beating the Canadians with an overtime goal. What made it particularly special was what the team did after the gold medal ceremony. Two years earlier, Johnny Gaudreau, who was to be a member of the team, was struck and killed by a drunk driver, leaving behind a wife and two young children, with a third on the way. During the post medal celebration, two members of the team brought Gaudreau's kids onto the ice with them to be part of the team photo. What a kind and gracious gesture to ensure that their teammate and his family would not be forgotten.

   James writes in James 1:26-27, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his own tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." When we think of the role religion is to play in the life of Christians, we tend to drift in one of two directions. Religion becomes intensely theological, or it becomes intensely practical; it becomes a function of the head, or it becomes a function of the hand. Forgotten often is that pure religion is actually a function of the heart that brings both the head and the hand into alignment with God's purposes. God never called us to pit one against the other. We are to remember those in distress and need, and we are to keep ourselves from the contaminating influence of the world.

   As we celebrate accomplishments of the American athletes and the kind gestures like that of the U.S.A. men's hockey team, let us remember that God calls us to greater demonstrations of kindness. The love the Father has poured out into our hearts through the work of the Son as empowered by the Spirit gives us the opportunity to demonstrate religion in its purest and must undefiled form, one that remembers those in need and remains unstained by the world.