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Friday, January 18, 2013

Forgiveness and Lance Armstrong

Many of you probably know who Lance Armstrong is. He’s a bicycle racer who overcame cancer to win the most famous bicycle race in the world, the Tour de France, seven times, more times than anyone else ever has. He also founded the Livestrong Foundation, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to help and support people who are suffering from cancer and their families.

Along the way, Armstrong was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. He was tested many times, as are all bicycle racers, and nothing was ever found. Armstrong himself denied using anything. In fact, not only did he deny it, he denied it loudly and in no uncertain terms. He denied it to the extent that he sued some of the people who made the accusation, and even won some of the lawsuits.

Now, it turns out that Armstrong was lying, and the accusers were telling the truth. Lance Armstrong has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

Reactions to his admissions have been varied. People who support Armstrong are willing to excuse his behavior. They say that he did nothing that other cyclists didn’t do. Besides, they say that anything bad he did is more than made up for by all the good he’s done for people through his foundation. Others say that cheating is cheating and lying is lying, and those things cannot be justified by other things that we do. Also, they point out that Armstrong sued people and took money from them when all along they were the ones telling the truth and he was the one who was lying.

I’m not going to tell you what to think, but I’d point out a couple of things. First, I’d point out that each of us is responsible for his or her own behavior. "Everybody else does it" is not an excuse that flew with Mom, and it’s not an excuse that flies with God, either. Nowhere in the Bible does God say "everybody else does it" is a justification for doing things we know are wrong. Similarly, "the end justifies the means" is not sanctioned in the Bible as an excuse for our behavior, either.

On the other hand, most of us have used those excuses at some point in our lives. Most of us have tried to justify our behavior by pointing to what others do. Most of us have tried to defend our actions by pointing to some good thing we did to justify it. That doesn’t make it right, but it’s something most of us have done. None of us is perfect. Each one of us is a mixture of good and bad. Each of us has done things we’re very proud of and things we’re really ashamed of. Each of us has tried to cover up the things we’re ashamed of, and when that didn’t work we’ve tried to justify them somehow.

That’s why we’re told not to judge others—because none of us is qualified to do it. That’s also why we all need God’s forgiveness. God does not judge us based on what everyone else does. God does not say that the good things we do can make up for the bad things. God looks at each one of us and sees the same thing: a sinner, someone who needs to go to God and honestly and sincerely ask for God’s forgiveness and God’s help in changing our lives.

If he hasn’t already, Lance Armstrong needs to ask for God’s forgiveness. So do you. And so do I. The good news is that when we do, God will give us that forgiveness. Then, we won’t need to make excuses any more. We still won’t be perfect, but we’ll be forgiven, and we’ll be given a chance to try again. We can start our race over and do it right this time, knowing that God will be with us every step of the way.

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