Finishing well, winning what?

Everyone is paying attention to the Olympics, but one of the most beautiful moments came not when Michael Phelps scored his 23rd gold, or when  Usain Bolt won his four executive gold in 100m and 200m. It was when American athlete Abbey D'Agostino assisted an injured New Zealander Nikki Hamilton to the finish line at the qualifing round of the female 5000m race. They were strangers just minutes before. 

"I had to make this decision: what was I running for?" D'Agostino said during an interview afterwards, "I wanted to run for something that was secure, and that was God. Something so much greater than me and something I can't control."

The father of the modern Olympics Pierre de Coubertin once said, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

D'Agostino and Hamilton definitely fought well in this race amidst of struggles. And D'Agostino did not shy away from claiming that her faith had significant impact on her decision to assist a stranger in one of the most critical race in her entire life, at the Olympics.

Though de Coubertin did not mention it, I suspected that he wasn't the one who originated the idea of how fighting well is worth more than winning. Somehow somewhere in the Bible, we could see how God also imparts in us the significance of a race well finished:

2 Timothy 4:7-8New International Version (NIV)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Yes, how much I long to finish the race through keeping and growing  my faith, not to win a gold medal, but a crown of righteousness, until the day he comes!