In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them. Hold tightly to the word of life, so that when Christ returns, I will be proud that I did not lose the race and that my work was not useless. (Philippians 2:14-16 NLT).

I must confess that I was one of the millions who watched “American Idol” Wednesday night to see who the winner would be. I had listened to both of the young ladies perform and though I am no expert, both were very talented and either could have been the winner. I found it interesting that Fantasia Barrino was reported as having prayed before every performance. This is not to say that Diana DeGarmo did not, however it was as if the host for the event found it odd that anyone would pray before performing. I find it odd that they wouldn’t! The pressure and stress from the schedule and actual performance must have been immense. Why wouldn’t they pray?

This is at the heart of Paul’s instructions to us in our reading this morning. It is important that we do our best to face adversity and struggles in our everyday lives in front of our family, our friends, and our fellow workers, so that our actions can glorify God. A true sign of a Christian is the way we react to things that happen, for we "are" the "light of the world." This requires that we pray, asking for God’s strength and help.

The Christian offers to everyone, the "Word of Life," or the "Word, which gives life." We as Christians are to offer hope when there is none, light when there is darkness, and hope when there is utter despair. We are to demonstrate, or to show Christ to the world. He ends the instruction by saying, “I will be proud that I did not lose the race and that my work was not useless.”  Throughout Paul's writings we see this love for the athlete. He knows how disciplined a successful athlete's life had to be, and how hard they strive to reach their goal to be a champion. To Paul, this was a constant encouragement to the Christian, to strive always to be a Champion.

As Christians we are in a triathlon for eternal life. We will have many hurdles to jump . . . we will have to face the challenge of our opponent - the devil . . . and we will get tired, and our spiritual muscles will ache. Yet we must keep running. As Paul prayed that he would not be like the athlete whose training and effort have gone for nothing, we too must pray this prayer. Real winners in life are those who partner with Christ in prayer. How’s your prayer life?