The life of Christian faith

is the life of the in-between:

sometimes fasting, sometimes feasting,

living in Lent, living in Easter.

We feast on the past

while we fast for the future.

 

A harvest already won

is a harvest that we celebrate

even while we labor in the field

so that its abundance shines forth.

 

Living in the in-between

is enough to make you realize

that the time is now

to make hay while the sun shines.

 

It might seem

that our fifteen minutes of fame

is an honor we can do without.

After all, to God be the glory.

And to us?

Well.... to God be the glory.

 

But fifteen minutes of fame

can take a person well beyond the reaches

of a self-styled ego trip

complete with autographs and interviews.

In fact, a few moments under the sun

can make our world closer to God’s world.

 

It happened two weeks ago

at the Olympics in Turin, Italy.

 

An American speed skater, Joey Cheek,

won the gold for a record performance.

But in the wake of his victory,

his fifteen minutes of fame

was not directed towards Disneyland trips

or front panels of Wheaties boxes.

 

Instead, it was directed towards

the suffering peoples of Africa--

places like Chad and the Sudan

where the fast for basic human rights

overshadows the flavor of the Christian feast.

 

In a gold medal gospel performance

Cheek used his fifteen minutes of fame

to turn our attention away from competition

and towards the long-distance race

to the fullness of God’s Kingdom.

 

His comments to reporters

revealed his fast in midst of his feast.

"There are people over there dying," he says,

"while I skate around on ice in tights."

 

Not a bad way to bring perspective

to both Olympic games and eucharistic feasts.

God’s pledge of a future glory

is a victory sealed in bread and wine.

 

Our moment in the sun

is meant to last a lifetime.

 

©Tom Mannebach