This past weekend Michelle Kwan accomplished something many felt unattainable in the world of figure skating in America. At age 23, she won her seventh straight United States women’s figure skating championship. During her career, she has won this title eight times. In Atlanta, on Saturday night, Michelle was almost perfect. In the decisive free skate portion of the competition, seven of the nine judges gave her a perfect 6.0. The other two judges gave her 5.9’s. Congratulations, Michelle!

            You would think Michelle’s accomplishment would have brought on a night of high praise and celebration—wrong! Rafael Arutunia, Michelle’s new coach, was giving reporters a very critical assessment of her future as a world-class figure skater before he left the arena. He said:

We are going to have a serious conversation after the world championships. If she deices to skate (at the 2006 winter Olympic games), we will make plans and talk about trying to get new stuff into programs, like combination spins and new positions and other things like that, if she really wants to get better and compete with the up-and-coming skaters. You should develop, right? If you do not develop, somebody can come up and beat you.” [Christine Brennan, Keeping Score, USAToday.com, 14 January 2004]

It sounds like there will be no resting on near-perfection if Kwan hopes to win Olympic gold in 2006 at the age of 25.

            I admire this aspect of athletics—disciplined training to improve performance. While in college, I admired the work ethic of one of our sprinters on the track team. He ran the one hundred-yard dash. His event was over in about 10 seconds. Yet, he trained hours to be his best for those 10 seconds. I’ve watched him practice coming out of the starting blocks at least 50 times in a single afternoon. An assistant would shout: “Runners to their mark. Set. Go!” The same assistant, with stopwatch in hand, would time the first 15 to 20 yards from the start. A video camera was placed down the track, and they would determine his trajectory out of the blocks. My friend was looking for anything to shave hundreds of a second off his time in the 100.

            Athletes, at all levels, work hard in practice to improve performance in competition. They know they will not perform at certain levels during an event if they have not laid the groundwork in months or weeks of intensive training. Yes, immediately after the 2004 national figure skating championships, Michelle Kwan’s coach is looking toward the 2006 Winter Olympics. There is work to be done if Michelle hopes to win an Olympic gold medal, an achievement that proved illusive in 1998 and 2002. In fact, Michelle must go beyond the perfection she has achieved in her program. She must ditch that program and create a new one with more difficult elements.

            All this reminds me that Paul used many phrases from the athletic world as he wrote and spoke about the faith. We are “to fight the good fight,” and “finish the race.” There are many connections I think between athletic training and discipleship. First, athletes train intentionally daily focusing on a particular aspect of performance. Disciples need to train intentionally every day—reading the scriptures, praying, serving others, doing acts of compassion and mercy. Second, athletes train to perform at their highest levels in competition. Disciples must train for the most difficult times on the journey of faith—sufferings, persecution, a sense of God’s absence, personal failures, secret temptations, lingering guilt and shame. Third, athletes know failure to train means poor performance. Disciples know that if they neglect their life with Christ by failing to nurture their relationship with him and/or being absent from worship and opportunities to serve with others, their passion for faith slowly fades.

            Some disciples recoil at the words of Jesus, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Today I wonder if Jesus wasn’t speaking like Michelle Kwan’s coach. We have to mature as disciples on the journey of faith. If we don’t, then the world captures us, and we are lost. Let’s take a few lessons from the world of athletics—let’s train to perform like mature Christians being salt, light, and leaven in our world.jamie