How Important is the Backstory?

Between the Olympics and the 2 political conventions, my sleep quotient has greatly diminished this past month. I enjoy both sports and politics. When you think about it, they are really similar. It's a way for people to compete, hear the roar of the crowd, root on a cause, and pump up the bravado. There's even a little contact if you're in the Taiwanese Parliament (check out the videos below).

Recently, the Olympics and the conventions have taken on a new angle over the past few cycles. Our country is mesmerized by the biographical back stories of the participants. In many cases, the biographical histories are featured more than the real competition at hand.

There's the Somalian runner Samia Yusuf Omar from war-torn Somalia, featured in a recent blog on the Olympics...

"Samia Yusuf Omar headed back to Somalia Sunday, returning to the small two-room house in Mogadishu shared by seven family members. Her mother lives there, selling fruits and vegetables. Her father is buried there, the victim of a wayward artillery shell that hit their home and also killed Samia’s aunt and uncle.This is the Olympic story we never heard.It’s about a girl whose Beijing moment lasted a mere 32 seconds – the slowest 200-meter dash time out of the 46 women who competed in the event. Thirty-two seconds that almost nobody saw but that she carries home with her, swelled with joy and wonderment. Back to a decades-long civil war that has flattened much of her city. Back to an Olympic program with few Olympians and no facilities. Back to meals of flat bread, wheat porridge and tap water."

Then, on the political side, there's Barack Obama who came from a single parent, wandering existence before his meteoric rise to being a community organizer and legislator. There's John McCain who spent 5 and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton.

I guess I would be a really boring Olympian or politician. I can hear Bob Costas now saying my story: "A man brought up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, young Jamie struggled with stuttering early in his life and battled obesity, often suffering the ridicule of wearing Husky jeans...."

My questions are: Are our athletes or politicians in these contests to showcase where they came from, or are they here to show what they can do today? Does your past really matter? Does your past qualify you better than someone who came from a semi-normal background? We Christians are just as guilty when we emphasize the "powerful testimonies" of "really bad sinners" who came to Jesus. You know what I'm talking about. We'd rather hear how God saved somebody from drugs, child smuggling, and other illicit activity than know what God is doing TODAY in someone's life. I've counseled with people who said that their testimony was boring because God shielded them from many of the pitfalls in which many people fall. Which is more important to God- our past or where we are today? Isn't it an awesome story that God shielded a person who accepted Christ at an early age and who lived a beautiful, uneventful life? Our past is important because it demonstrates the powerful work of God in bringing us to our current state. But I'm more interested in what God is doing in your life today. If the past is all we have...if our old life story before Jesus is the most important qualifier for us to share or to minister then I feel we're negating a whole lot of people who have a bland, powerful story to tell.