Ever wondered, how an injury sustained in sport can be a badge of honor to a sportsman?
Some years ago I came across an interview with the ex-world boxing champion –Larry Holmes- published in a leading Sports Magazine in India (Sportstar). What caught my attention was the pride this boxing champ (in his younger days) took in being a sparring partner of arguably the greatest Boxer to have walked on planet earth- Muhammad Ali.
Without any qualms, Holmes shared an experience where Ali giving him a black eye in one of the training sessions, and how he went about the streets, flaunting his “black eye” so that this bodily injury would proclaim “to the whole world”, that he was Ali’s training partner!!!
How true in the spiritual realm too! The injuries (physical or emotional), sustained by persecution, while following our Lord, can be our badges of honor. It certainly was to one apostle Paul: “…For I carry on my body the scars of the whippings and wounds from Jesus’ enemies that mark me as His slave.” (Galatians 6:17 TLB)
Are you carrying any spiritual “badges of honor”? If so, be PROUD of them!
Prayer: Father, enable me to count as gain, my sufferings for thee. I pray for the transformation of my persecutors too. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Blessings,
Suresh Manoharan