“Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature.” – Rom 1:20

Early Franciscan mystics considered creation the "first Bible" - the first revelation of the Creator. An old pastor-friend once told me that we only really display the Creator's glory when we do what He designed us to do. I truly believe, also, that even someone from an atheist or agnostic perspective, can appreciate that every living thing has a unique design purpose. That particular purpose created, uniquely made, you for – perform it and the glory of the universe shines through you. He used the analogy of an eagle soaring on thermal currents. Doing what its Creator designed it for allows it exist in harmony, "fit in" perfectly into a universal "blue print".

Can you imagine being that eagle and how you would relish those hours you would spend with the wind beneath your wings, lifting you higher and higher, effortlessly, with the warm winter sun on your back?

Relish! I love that word! It speaks to me of tasting, feeling, smelling - a full awakening of the senses - a full frontal sensory assault. Relish! I am relishing the opportunity to use it over and over. Relish! Am I getting my point home?

Perhaps the eagle is not the best example. Let’s use a man or a woman as an example. I have a particular man in mind, though, so let me sketch a scenario first. Saturday afternoon 16th August 2008, all around the world men and woman are in front of their televisions watching sport of some sorts. The Olympics are on so this would be the prime attraction for sports-lovers. “Sports-lovers”? Does this not imply some love of partaking or are we just referring to the spectator? The sessile couch-slouch, the all-knowing critic-extraordinaire?

OK, I’m going to step on a few toes here, not least of all some of my own friends. But the over-weight, crisp-munching, beer-guzzling Saturday afternoon TV spectator does not fit my idea of a sports-lover. In the supreme design studios of the universe, was this envisioned as a glorifying activity?

Anyway...

Then it happens. The 100m men’s finalists line up in the Birds Nest in Beijing. In lane four Usain Bolt kneels under starters orders. At 6 feet 5 inches he’s easily the tallest in the field and his exuberance is clearly evident. There’s a lightness about him despite his size, and just something different. About 80m and just under 9 seconds after the starters gun, Usain realised it was over. He began to RELISH! Allow me to quote Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post:

“The 6ft 5’’ Jamaican giant could pump his arms and drive to the finish to establish a time so much lower than his own world record of 9.72s, that every “fastest man on earth” from the past would gasp. Or he could invent the most amazing “Oh-my-Lord-nobody’s-even-done-that-before” conclusion to a 100m performance in the annals of the Olympic Games. Bolt chose joy, picked soul over stats. The 21 year-old sucked the juice out of his moment right down to the rind and electrified 91,000 in the Birds Nest with a show of bravado, a mid-sprint celebration, like none seen before.”

Now I certainly don't know what exactly was going through young Usain's kind at the time, but on that Saturday evening in Beijing, he glorified his Creator in that particular arena like no man before him. And I love the way he relished it.

What an inspiration that 9.69s has been to me. From then on I chose to discover and do what my Creator had planned for me and I intend to relish doing it.

Choose “soul over stats” and LIVE your life, every day. Relish!

18 August 2008