'Fit for Purpose' - Weekly Reflection 15th February 2026

Despite having spent five years as an Apprentice Jockey, and being a runner, I am not a sporty type. Watching sports is not top of my list, although there are exceptions.

If it is major tournament in either football or rugby and England is playing I will try and watch the match. But not cricket, that I just can’t get any interest for at all. My two older brothers are keen sports fans, the eldest, who lives in Shaw is a keen Man United fan and hardly misses a match.  Conversation between them often sails right over my head.

However, I was watching some of the Winter Olympics the other evening. And great to see we have got a second gold as Great Britain's Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale secured Olympic gold in the mixed snowboard cross event.

What we were watching was the ski-jumping. The endless hours of gruelling training for a brief few minutes’ hurtling down the ski slope and hopefully the execution a perfect technical jump.  We have also watched some of the figure skating.  

Other disciplines however call for endurance like the Cross-country skiing, and there are now 16 disciplines in the winter Olympics 2026.

It is to the world of sports that Paul reaches when he wants to offer a metaphor for living the disciplined life as an apprentice to Jesus.

‘Everyone who goes in for athletics exercises self-discipline in everything. They do it to gain a crown that perishes; we do it for an imperishable one.  Well then: I don’t run in an aimless fashion! I don’t box like someone punching the air! No: I give my body rough treatment, and make it my slave, in case, after announcing the message to others, I myself should end up being disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9.25-27.  

The Ancient Olympics, ended in around when in 393 AD, the Christian emperor Theodosius I forbade the celebration of pagan cults, which included the Games. Nonetheless, the popularity of sports contests and cultural festivities continued in many Greek-influenced provinces of the Roman empire as late as the 6th century.

On a visit to Greece some years ago I did run part of the original running track at Olympia in Greece. However, not wanting to cause offence or get arrested I did wear clothes!

This Wednesday begins our Lenten journey with Ash Wednesday. For many this will mean Holy Communion and the Imposition of Ashes. Ideally, Palm Crosses from the previous year will be burned and the ash mixed with oil. This paste is then used to make a mark on the forehead usually accompanied by the words, ‘remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.’  

However, it is a firm Christian hope that this corruptible flesh shall put on the incorruptible, as noted in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, ‘For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.’ (1 Cor 15.33)

More importantly our current bodies, even while subject to disease and decay, house the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the temples wherein lies the Holy Spirit.

Shall I take this body and join it it to a prostitute asks Paul, ^‘Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!  (1 Cor 6.15)

In short matter matters to God, our physical bodies and what we do with them is important.

And when considering our bodies let our understanding expand out to include our mind, our emotions, our whole being, as holistic entities.

A few weeks ago I put our car in for an annual service. Hopefully this will ensure that it remains roadworthy and safe to drive.

Lent provides us with a similar opportunity, to check how we are doing in our apprenticeship to Jesus.  Maybe to take something on, or to participate in some sort of discipline. And in no way wanting to be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, I do think it is good if we tell each other of our intention. It may be that you have discovered a great resource, and there are some fantastic ones on-line these days, or you may feel that you need to fast from something, IT perhaps, or some of the more familiar things like chocolate and alcohol or eating meat or even meals.

Telling each other will hold us to the discipline, and it may help if we are in somebodies’ company and we know that they are following a fast of some sort or other. Then, of course, it is great to share any useful resource we have found.

James writes, ^‘Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.’  (James 1.12)

And let me say that I will be following my usual discipline of fasting from alcohol. (With an occasional ‘relaxation’ as we do have our daughter’s and my wife’s birthday during Lent) 

There is a very particular reason why I follow this practise, but that’s a story for another time!