The Bible Can Inspire Our Olympic Athletes – Folsom Times

With the Olympics set to begin next Friday, it might be a good time for a Bible study.

No, I’m not going to make you sound like Jerry Falwell. I just thought you might be interested in the biblical etymology of expressions used in the heat of athletic competition.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “etymologies are not definitions; they are explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.”

But I’ll go back a little further in time because, as a spiritual columnist, I’m somewhat amused to hear people quote the Bible without knowing it.

So today, and just for fun, I present some biblical sayings that might be inadvertently quoted by athletes at the Paris Games.

For example, when weightlifters talk about their “hard work and sweat” that brought them to the Olympics, they are making a veiled reference to Genesis 3:19.

It is here that God tells Adam and Eve that because of their transgression, there will be no more free lunch. Their survival will require hard work, for it will be only “in the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…”

When a gymnast stumbles over his answers during an interview, the reporter may suggest a favorable answer to his own question. Reporters call these questions “softballs” and often add, “I’m not trying to put words in your mouth.” This reporter is trying to evoke a printable quote by unknowingly plagiarizing 2 Samuel 14:3: “And Joab put the words in his mouth.”

In a sporting competition, a cyclist may rejoice at his rival’s failure by saying that his opponent has “bitten the dust.” These words convey the spirit of vengeance expressed in Psalm 72:9, “…and his enemies shall lick the dust.”

“Arise and shine!” is an exhortation some coaches use to wake up their Olympic athletes for a morning workout routine. They do so without realizing that they are quoting the prophet Isaiah who said, “Arise and shine, for your light has come…” (60:1).

Or a swimmer in a close race might modestly describe her victory as “barely.” She quotes Job 19:20: “I escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

And when a track star tells us she’s going to “focus and run the race that’s set before her,” she’s making a vague reference to Hebrews 12:1: “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

When a top diver speaks in a resigned tone about the poor marks he received from international judges, he can choose his comment from two different verses.

“I have to trust the ‘powers that be,’” they say, without thinking of Romans 13:1: “…the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Or as the diver looks at his poor results on the scoreboard, he may unknowingly cite Daniel 5 as seeing “the writing on the wall.”

The humble relay runner knows she’s competing as a team, and there’s no “I” in the word “team.” So when asked about her chances in an upcoming race, she resists the temptation to brag by saying, “Pride goes before a fall.” She may know she’s quoting Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Of course, I expect to hear this kind of speech more often than not from coaches trying to boost the morale of athletes who are going home without a gold medal. “You can be proud of yourself for representing the United States, because you fought the good fight!”

These words should inspire them, just as they can motivate the rest of us lazy people to get up and move. After all, these are the words that inspired Timothy when the apostle Paul told his co-pastor, “Fight the good fight of the true faith” (1 Timothy 6:12).

Go Team USA!

I owe the inspiration for this column to Steve Prokopchak’s list of 30 Common Sayings You Didn’t Know Were From the Bible. See steveprokopchak.com.

Chaplain Norris Burkes, columnist and chaplain, began his chaplain career in the active duty Air Force and Air National Guard until his retirement in 2014. He then served as a certified chaplain at Sutter Memorial, Kaiser, Methodist and Mather VA hospitals and continues to work with area hospices. His column appears in over 35 accredited media outlets. Read past columns at www.thechaplain.net.