This week, Lance Armstrong, stepped down from his chairmanship of the Livestrong Foundation, amidst the ongoing scandals involving his doping while cycling. It is such a sad time for Mr. Armstrong. The Livestrong foundation has raised a reported $500 million against the war on cancer. Livestrong has been his charity baby but it was the right thing for him to step down for the ongoing health of the Foundation.
The world is an intoxicating mistress. Many of us have compromised our principles, our values in an effort to be accepted by her. I am no exception. Either is Mr. Armstrong. He won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between the years of 1999 and 2005. He was/is a hero but at a severe moral cost.
But on this Sunday, I look for the real way to “live strong” against the wiles of the world.
Paul The Apostle says, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) Paul recounts what God said to him when he prayed to the Lord to take away “a thorn in my flesh.” God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” “Therefore,” says Paul, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”( 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10).
I do not know of Mr Armstrong’s faith. It would be my prayer that in this humbling time, this period of transition, that he seek God’s grace. For even at such a time as this, he can find strength through Jesus Christ. No one is without folly, without sin in this world. But we can find strength and purpose by turning to the Lord and finding power through God, Himself.
God has always used the frail, the stuttering, the sinners to lead his nation. May Mr. Armstrong be one of those leaders where he can truly learn and lead what it means to “live strong”.
Living strong is living God.
