Boycott

Some of the more recent Olympic Games have been tarnished by boycotts. In the Montreal Games the African nations refused to participate. In Moscow (1980) it was the Western nations and the United States of America. In Los Angeles (1984) it was the former USSR that did not join in.

Always for political reasons, the leaders of one country or another barred their athletes from participating in the Olympic Games, so taking away from them the possibility of gaining glory and medals for themselves and their countries. 

So we can say, quite simply, that materialism and politics seem to influence everything. They are the 'gods' of this world, capable of destroying the dreams of thousands of people, simply by making some arbitrary decisions. There almost always exists a conflict of interest between materialism and any other cause, including people's lives.

Man's reaction these days seems to oppose anything that does not promote money or power. Basically our society is grounded in this: the interplay between money and power. It is the reason why those who have huge financial assets are able to dominate, and the powerful people are those with money. It is, what's more, a philosophy of life, the philosophy of material success, of power and, often, of political deceit.

The seriousness of the matter is that these 'enemies' can rob us of our spiritual reward, if we give in to the pressure, if we allow them to govern our lives. They are real enemies, which infiltrate our lives without our realising it. They make us think in the same way as the rest of society; we feel obliged to have the same motivating force, and give importance to the same things.

We then stray from our own objectives, and so we have our prize taken away. In the 'Olympics' of our spiritual life, materialism stops us from participating and gaining medals.

Unfortunately, it's not only these external enemies that we are concerned with. Equally dangerous are the enemies inside our lives. Yes, although it seems hard to believe, our own sin is our worst enemy. It shows itself in hundreds of different ways, egoism, pride, envy, jealousy, giving in to temptation... and the worst of it is that we are often unaware of what is happening.

We should be ready; ready to do battle against the enemy that wants to boycott our receiving a prize, whether it is from outside or within us. We have a right to work for the prize; no one should take it from us. God has promised us the victory in this.