I’ve never been a very good athlete and I remember the youthful pain of team selection in gym classes. You hope and pray you won’t be chosen last. A few times I was chosen as one of the first, not because I was good, but because the person doing the choosing was my friend. It made me want to do my very best.

In the New Testament, St. Peter told the followers of Jesus, “You are a chosen people,… a people belonging to God.” That means that if you’re a follower of Jesus, then God has chosen you for his team.

In the Olympic games, it’s an honor for the athletes to wear the names and flags of the nations they represent. If you’re a Christian, you are in the Olympics of life as a citizen of heaven. You have been chosen by God himself and wear his name. What an indescribable honor!