From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
One of the great “feel good” stories that came out of the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia was that of Canadian cross-country ski coach, Justin Wadsworth.
During the men’s sprint competition a Russian skier suffered a broken ski.
Anton Gafarov, a medal hopeful, was simply trying to finish after his left ski broke during a fall. As he approached the finishing area he fell again with the ski all but off his foot. That is when Wadsworth sprang into action, quickly coming to the aid of the beleagured skier and replacing the broken ski with one of the Canadian spares.
The Russian athlete went on to finish to the roaring approval of the partisan crowd.
Justin Wadsworth’s shared his reason for stepping in, “I wanted him to have dignity as he crossed the finish line.”
You may or may not have followed the Olympics very closely, but this kind of sportsmanship appeals to athlete and non-athlete alike.
It is what Jesus called “doing unto others what you would have them do unto you.”
This coach didn’t reach out to the embattled athlete in order to draw attention to himself.
Rather, he was simply supplying what was needed at that moment, and in so doing, showed a great example to us all of love in action.
Let’s look for ways to do some of that this week.
