Run, That Ye May Obtain

In the 2006 Olympics in Turin, there was one relatively obscure, but notable performer.

Finishing 21st in figure skating was Tugba Karademir, a twenty year old woman from Turkey with dual citizenship with Canada. The story of her pursuit of figure skating is an intriguing anecdote:

-AP
.... As a kindergartner, Tugba Karademir ventured with her classmates onto the first full-size rink ever built in Turkey - and started on a remarkable path that uprooted her family, tested her pluck and now has led her to Turin as her country's first figure skater to reach the Olympics.....

....Even as a 5-year-old in 1990, skating weekly with her classmates at the then-new rink in Ankara, it was clear that Karademir - an only child - had talent. By the time she was 12, and already a winner of a Balkans under-18 medal, her parents decided she should move abroad to obtain the best possible coaching.

Her mother gave up a job with Roketsan, a Turkish rocket and missile maker, and the two of them moved to Barrie, Ont., while Tugba's father stayed behind - maintaining his restaurant business in Ankara in case his wife and daughter abandoned their adventure and opted to return home.

What strikes me as particularly noteworthy in this is the incredible sacrifices the family - particularly the parents - made in order to assist their daughter in her desired pursuit of figure skating.

To pull up roots, give up a prestigious job, leave family and friends and move across the world to a foreign country in order that their daughter would have the best environment, training and development is, to say the least, remarkable.

If anything qualified to be considered an interference in their lives, that would have.

How many of us would give up that much for such a venture?


I'd like to draw some parallels here. 1Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

We, who have been called to run the spiritual race which is of eternal value, to obtain the incorruptible crown of righteousness: Do we consider such things as careers, as salaries, as lands, homes, and comfort as things with which the spiritual race is an interference? Do we seek with anywhere near as much self-sacrifice a place where we can raise our children in the best environment for training in the spiritual race?

Or do we cling to these sins which so easily beset us? Have we pitched our tent toward Sodom? Are we found even living within Sodom? Have we even given consideration to the training environment of both ourselves and family and children?

Let's take a more serious look at what we consider our important occupations in this life. Are they corruptible or incorruptible?

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.