I found the Paralympic games inspirational. The British contribution was particularly outstanding.

In fact, the GB athletes are proof that every competitor deserved to be called ‘a winner’ whoever won a medal. Bravery, commitment, a refusal to give in to despair: these athletes clearly possessed these virtues in abundance.

I was particularly impressed with Jodie Grinham who, I believe, originally hails from Haverfordwest.

The 31-year-old para-archer won both a bronze and gold in archery even though she was pregnant and had spent some time in hospital before competing.

In a very upbeat interview, she reportedly said “Baby hasn’t stopped kicking, it’s almost like baby’s going ‘what’s going on, it’s really loud, mummy what are you doing ‘but it has been a lovely reminder of the support bubble I have in my belly”.

Grinham is believed to be the first openly pregnant woman to win a Paralympic medal. She really is a remarkable lady.

As I read Jodie’s story, I realised that ‘archery’ can challenge every one of us to reflect on our God-given potential because of the Greek word the New Testament frequently uses when referring to sin.

‘Amartia’ could be translated as ‘to miss the mark’ when shooting arrows at a target for example, and when we appreciate that it is easy to see how it can prove a challenge to the way we live.

We can have all sorts of role models of course, but I don’t think we will ever find a better one than Jesus. After all, even God gave Him the ‘thumbs up’ by raising Him from the dead.

Having said that though it means that if we don’t seek God’s will for our lives as He did, and if we don’t treat others in the way that He did we will inevitably ‘miss the mark’ or to put it another way we will sin.

When we understand ‘sin’ this way it’s easy to see why one of His first disciples could write ‘For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard’.

But the New Testament writers want us to know that failure doesn’t have to have the last word. We may ‘miss the mark’, and pretty badly at times too, but God is willing to do more than forgive us, He can help us improve our aim. That’s why the Chrisian message is known as the ‘Gospel’, that is ‘Good News’.

People can view hope very differently. For Henry Miller it was ‘a bad thing’ whereas Emil Brunner could say ‘What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life”.

Miller seems to have been criticising the type of hope that refuses to face up to reality, allowing us to live in some kind of dream world whereas Brunner was identifying the kind of hope that can give meaning and purpose to life, even in the midst of difficulty and disappointment.

Athletes like Jodie Grinham embody Brunner’s kind of hope, and they well deserve the medals they have won.

We can’t all be Olympic or Paralympic athletes of course but we can be a people of hope too, confident that when we turn to God for help we can become more and more like Jesus, and I don’t think any medal could compare with that.