Do You Still Have Your Passport?

By C. Sampson
Well, here we are about 85% of the way through the XXII Winter Olympics. I’ve always enjoyed Olympic competition. The idea of the world’s nations putting together a team of elite athletes in an effort to demonstrate their superiority over the others is fascinating. Through the years the competition has been as much about political and ideological dominance as it has been about sport. Looking back we see Jesse Owens, a clearly non-Aryan athlete, utterly defeating the Nazis. Or, the USA men’s hockey team with a stunning victory over the Soviet machine. If you are American, and were alive during any of these or other similar events, I imagine you would have felt some level of pride for the success of your country. Knowing that the USA was leading the world in sporting prowess somehow also translates to a feeling of world power. You likely would not have considered the thought of an American athlete leaving to compete for Germany or the USSR if they couldn’t make it onto Team USA. It would have been incomprehensible that a countryman would abandon American principals just to do something they really wanted to do.

Last night, I was having an interesting conversation with some friends about Olympic loyalty, or lack thereof, in modern day competition. In recent years it has become more and more common for athletes that are unable to compete in their birth country to obtain citizenship in other nations that have room on their rosters. We wondered how a born and bred American (or any other nationality for that matter) could walk away from their country and affiliate themselves with another. If the idea is for a nation to bring its best, and you don’t make the cut, should you really have the opportunity to defect? I must say, it all feels a bit selfish to me. Of course, I’m not an elite athlete that has spent my entire life dedicated to a sport only to be determined by coaches to be too short, slightly less agile, or simply one too many people to take on the trip. But, looking simply at the Olympic concept, the point is simple-not everyone can go. 

As I considered this idea, I was struck by how similar this can be to our spiritual lives. I know I’ve used the passage before, but in Philippians 3:20 Paul describes believers as those having “citizenship in heaven.” To me, this means I have an obligation to be loyal to the kingdom to which I belong. However, how easy is it to renounce my citizenship when things don’t go my way? I look out and see something that God doesn’t want for me or that heavenly citizenship doesn’t offer and I say “fine, here’s my passport” and dive headlong into the citizenship of the world in order to participate in the events previously unavailable to me. Of course, this is sin. And, in addition to the disobedience factor, how does this look to my countrymen or to the nation I’ve joined? I imagine it would be a lot like Carl Lewis running for the Soviets, how would that have gone down? Americans would have flipped and the Soviets would have been able to build a stronger argument about the uselessness of the U.S. The same can be said  for spiritual citizenship. It’s not good to watch a brother swallowed by the world, and the world loves the opportunity to say “look, even your guys are switching teams. Who needs your God?”

The point of all of this is simple-if you’re believer, don’t forget where your loyalties lie. Don’t be enticed by the prospect of competing on another team just because things might not feel like they’re going your way. The truth is, God has a perfect plan for you. And, though you may not be in the event you want, there is no better place for you.