17th August 2016

Today my favourite event starts at the Olympics. The Decathlon. It literally means the ‘ten feats’, and involves competing in ten individual events covering the disciplines of running, throwing and jumping. What makes the event challenging, is that the winner is decided not by who is ‘first past the post’, but who ends the competition with the highest score, as calculated by a points system, where points are awarded for achieving great times and heights and distances.

Believe it or not, there is an even more demanding event. The Decalogue. Literally the ‘ten words’. In this event, the competitor strives in the individual disciplines of truth-telling, contentment, and self-control. The sixth one is called ‘You shall not murder’, and the seventh, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. Like the Decathlon, the winner is decided by a points system. But unlike the Decathlon, the gold is not awarded simply to who has the highest points, but to who has the perfect score.

To this point in the history of the event, only one man has ever reached that perfect score. He did it some 2000 years ago, when the event was held in the city of Jerusalem. That man represented a country called: ‘whosoever believes in him’; such that whosoever does, is privileged to have his achievement marked against their name, such that his perfect score becomes also theirs. No wonder then that his name is loved and blessed by those who trust in him.

DM 17^th August 2016