Next month marks the 25th anniversary of my being robbed! Not physically robbed by a bad guy but robbed of a title. It was the Fourth of July weekend in 1984, I was 16 about to turn 17 years old. Oakdale Country Club had it's big Fourth of July pool party. They had all kinds of activities for all ages. The had relay races, Marco Polo contests, greased Water Mellon contest, etc but the big finale was the diving contest. This was a big deal and always drew a big crowd. I have to admit that although I never tried out for the Olympic diving team I was quite the diver! I could do forward and backward flips, I could do half gainers and full gainers, jack-knifes and flips with twists, but the Holy Grail was the Forward Double Flip. It was a big deal because it was done on a small diving board, not a ten or twelve foot high dive. The contest was narrowed to two finalist, me and a kid named Danny. We had matched each other dive for dive and this was it, the final dive. I went first and decided that I would put the final nail in his coffin with the Forward Double Flip. I stepped onto the board and executed the dive flawlessly! I had great height, a nice full double rotation and landed squarely on my feet making as little splash as possible. The crowd went crazy! I just knew I was the 1984 Diving Champion at Oakdale Country Club! Danny made his way to the board. I could tell he was nervous, he had just seen something executed almost flawlessly that most people would never even attempt! If he were not soaking wet from the previous dive I am sure I could have seen the sweat beads forming on his head. Danny took off from the end of the board and began his rotation. I must admit, it was good but not as good as mine. I thought he had too much splash and did not fully complete the final rotation. I was envisioning myself with the honor being bestowed upon me, all of the people at the pool applauding me and maybe even my telling this story to a college admissions committee one day to secure my place in an Ivy League school!! But my hopes and dreams were dashed when the judges scored Danny's dive higher than my dive. Did he pay one of the judges off, was there a back door deal that took place, how could this be! Well 25 years later I still remember the contest. Had things turned out differently who knows where I might be right now, working on Wall Street, serving in Congress, we will never know.
I hope you realize that I laugh about this in reality, my wife rolls her eyes every time I start telling someone this story, as a matter of fact she has probably rolled her eyes several times as she read this. But there is coming a day when what we think we did with our life will not matter. How we judge our selves will have no weight. The ultimate judge who cannot be bribed, who does not miss anything will review our lives and we will have to give an account as to how we did.
II Corinthians 5: 10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Hebrews 4: 13 - Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
These passages are not talking about determining who is going to heaven, these passages are written to Believers. Those who have accepted what Christ accomplished at the cross as payment for their sins. These passages are talking about standing before Christ to be judged for how we lived our lives in view of what He did for us. Did we chase after things that did not matter? Did we show the love of Christ to those in need or were we too self absorbed? How did we handle our finances, did we invest it in things that rust and that gets destroyed by moths or did we invest it in the Kingdom? I hope that you and I will not get so focused on the here and now that we lose sight of eternity. We are all standing on the diving board of life, so to speak, are you going to attempt the Forward Double Flip or are you going to simply jump in and do The Pencil! I recommend the former.
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