His name is Stephen Nedoroscik, but they call him Clark Kent. After hours of waiting for his turn, he pulls off his glasses, strides up to the pommel horse, swings around with incredible skill and strength, and dismounts.
He’s an athlete and an artist. He has an eye condition that prevents him seeing while he’s moving across, around, and above the horse, so he makes all the movements by feel. He is so clearly in the zone up there, making it all look so smooth, seamless, and easy. And then he’s off.
Stephen Nedoroscik is at the Olympics to do one thing—the pommel horse. I love that about him. He excels in one aspect in men’s gymnastics. He realized years ago that he doesn’t have to be good at all of it. He focuses on one task and gives that his all. And he dominates.
Often in life, we think we have to be good at many things. Or we get caught up in what we aren’t doing well. My house is a mess, I don’t make enough homemade dinners, I can never keep up with all the work I want to get done, I’m not sure we’ve taken enough family time this summer, and on and on and on. It’s reassuring to think that maybe God doesn’t intend for me—for any of us—to excel at all of it. He gives each of us gifts in different ways. Then he asks us to use those gifts to make the world a little better, and the darkness a little lighter.
I’m not sure what my pommel horse is—or yours. But in this life that can feel like one big acrobatics competition, maybe there is one piece that we can focus on and do well. God has a calling for each of us. He invites us to discover it, to lean into our talents, and to do it in a way that no one else can. Whether we’re singing or dancing or swimming or scoring goals or cheering on those who are, we have a gift that is ours to share with the world.
The Olympics is full of stories of people who are performing at the highest level. But if you look around, you see people doing that everywhere you turn.
There’s the bagger at the grocery store, who slides groceries into the bag like a Tetris star.
There’s the teacher with infinite patience and creativity who awakens their students’ passion for a subject.
There’s the friend who knows how to listen fully and completely. There’s the husband who seems to know which nights to pick up dinner on the way home.
There are people all around giving of their gifts and shining in their roles, just like Stephen Nedoroscik gliding across the top of that pommel horse. And when we look at the saints, we see that too. They didn’t all do everything well. They did what God asked of them where they were, and they did it with a heart for others and a love for God.
We don’t have to win an Olympic medal. We don’t even need to go. We have everything we need right here.
What joy to know that we can give in our own ways, in our own time, and please God, simply by using the gifts he’s given us.
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