Olympic Festal Gathering

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I’m a sucker for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I almost always find a way to watch them live, no matter if I am in the U.S. or overseas, and no matter the difference in time zones. The ceremonies will be different this year for sure, during a pandemic and inside a near-empty stadium, but I’ll still be watching.

I can’t help myself. There is something so moving about the whole world tuning in to this bright festival of the nations, right on the cusp of a global competition between the very best athletes of those nations representing their countries with patriotic pride.

First comes the “artistic program,” which welcomes the Olympics with a cultural flourish of the host country. I remember watching the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which for me was at 2 a.m. local time in Indonesia (and which I paid for the next day). But it was worth every yawn that following day.

The whole jaw-dropping spectacle was called “Isles of Wonder” and was directed by the Academy Award-winning British director Danny Boyle (who also directed Slumdog Millionaire). A total of 60,000 people were in attendance, including Queen Elizabeth II who opened the ceremony. Eighty heads of state. A performance by Paul McCartney. Dancing. Lights. Shakespeare. History. Celebration. You get the grand picture.

And I remember the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Mercifully this one was broadcast during my normal waking hours, but the cultural wonder of that program would have definitely been worth a poor night’s sleep. Five kids dressed in parkas and wearing colors of the five Olympic rings walked in on top of a circular video disk with a Korean mythological white creature, making it look like they were exploring in the snow. What happened next would be nearly impossible to describe (click here to watch on YouTube). The bland title of “artistic program” does no justice for this cultural panoramic feast.

No amount of time or expense is spared to put on these showcases. The performers of the PyeongChang opening ceremony had practiced since October of the previous year to put on their cultural showcase—over half a year! For the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, an estimated $100 million dollars was spent on that one evening! Stadiums are built years ahead of time just to get ready. The whole world is watching and the whole world is rarely disappointed. Even in a global pandemic this year, I imagine what Tokyo comes up with make the whole world go, “Whoa!”

Next comes the “parade of nations.” I love watching the athletes stream into the stadium, carrying their flags to represent their beloved nations while the gigantic crowds greet and cheer for them. Greece gets to go first, as they birthed the Olympics, and the rest of the nations enter in alphabetic order using the Greek alphabet. I like to imagine the hundreds of thousands of people gathered around their TV sets in the athletes’ home countries to cheer them on as well. It takes a long time to watch all those athletes stream into the stadium, but it’s still so moving to watch.

After more greetings and speeches, it’s time for the entrance of the Olympic Torch, which has been traveling from Athens, Greece by special selected runners all these months. The crowd erupts in celebration as the final runner enters the stadium holding the golden torch and makes his or her way to a gigantic Olympic cauldron where the flame is finally lit. The Olympics have officially begun.

There is nothing else like the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Can you think of anything else that brings our planet together in such a colorful, cultural celebration? These epic ceremonies give us goosebumps, I believe, because they point us toward eternity. Here’s a window into heaven from the book of Revelation:

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it…The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

– Revelation 21:24,26

The kings of the earth marching in with their colorful, multi-national splendor. The glory and honor of all the nations, long parades of praise with every tribe, tongue and nation represented! All around are festive flags, traditional dances, lively symphonies and deeply rich cultural songs, a multi-national feast of the senses. (I personally can’t wait to see the delegations from Southeast Asia come to the party.)

In his book, Life Without Lack, Dallas Willard uses the palette of Hebrews Chapter 11 to paint a welcoming picture of heaven. This passage contrasts the fearful Old Covenant experience Moses and the Israelites had at Mount Sinai with the joyful New Covenant welcome of Christ at Mount Zion. Willard wrote:

That is the reality of heaven! It is where we stand, with God at the center, surrounded by all his perfect and perfected beings, those who have come to God through Jesus, the Lamb of God whose blood does not call out for judgment and condemnation, but for mercy, forgiveness, and the fullness of the grace of God! Indeed, it calls for a “festal gathering” (Heb. 12:22)—a grand, eternal, joyous party of praise to the God who makes it all possible!

– Dallas Willard, Life Without Lack (Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2018)

Sounds fun to me! It will be more like an exciting global party than our stale stereotypes of heaven. That “grand, joyous party of praise to God” is worth getting amped up for now. King Jesus at the center of it all.

Festal gathering, here we come...

– Excerpted from Unearthing Heaven by Mike O’Quin Jr.

Why I Wrote This Book (Or More Like How I Finished It)

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“The art of writing is applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”

– Mary Heaton Vorse

The theme of my new book, Unearthing Heaven, is finding life motivation by imagining ourselves standing before Jesus at a coming event in heaven known as the “Judgment Seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). This is a day of honor for believers and not punishment, much like a proud coach on awards banquet night is looking to reward his hard-working players and not bring up their failures. Orienting our lives toward the smile of Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and even meditating on our coming reward in heaven, is supposed to deeply motivate and stir us. Honor from God feels awkward for us, and this treasure chest of life motivation has been lost in recent church history, but it is still the highest-octane way to run life’s race. This teaching gripped me way back in my college days, and I wanted to “unearth” it, recapturing that holy awe and painting a more vivid and rewarding picture of eternity.

You can read a free sample to get a fuller sense of where the book is going in the introduction: Missing Treasure Chest. 

So that’s the motivation behind the book. Getting to the finish line—turning that motivation into an actual book—is another story.

On my old blog, Faith Activators, I found myself over the years returning again and again to the theme of the “bema” (Greek word for Judgment Seat). Probably one out of every five blog posts went there.

In the summer of 2018, I was in a writers’ group in Austin made up of some friends who were working on their manuscripts and needed a little encouragement along the way. Each writer got the hot-seat focus once a month, and when it was my turn I stitched some of those blog posts together and made a sample first chapter. They were very encouraging, which is what I really need to hear. (Writers struggle a lot with insecurity, as it feels so vulnerable to turn over your poured-out soul on pages to outside eyes.) They cheered me on and I thought, huh, maybe I will keep working and get this message out.

A few months later, we moved back to Indonesia and I kept poking around with the manuscript here and there, but wasn’t getting much headway beyond that sample first chapter. That December, our two older kids came out to visit us for Christmas vacation, and our family of six took a trip to Bali, just a one-day drive away from where we lived on the island of Java.

During one part of that family vacation, Stephanie and I got away for a night at a cute little hotel right on the beach, while our kids (now old enough to be left on their own) stayed back at a more inland hotel. Our beach had gorgeous island paradise views and it was a nice and relaxing getaway for us. It was also a popular spot for surfers, and we enjoyed watching them dare large waves from our cottage balcony.

Early the next morning, I took a long walk down the beach, enjoying a gentle island sunrise and cool mist from waves crashing against large rocks. After walking for a while, I came upon a two-story unfinished house right on a desolate stretch of the beach, tucked behind some beautiful rock formations. The elements had definitely taken their toll on this unfinished structure. It looked sort of a like an open doll house, each room visible without the covering of a front wall.

I felt a strong urge to climb inside and take a peek, wondering what the ocean view would be like from the house’s higher vantage point. It didn’t feel like trespassing to me, as no one obviously lived there and the owners seemed to have abandoned it long ago. There was no easy path to get to the house, no sidewalk or even stairs to climb up to the first floor, conveniences that I assumed were meant to be put in later. I navigated my way around piles of wood and tried to be careful not to cut my feet on broken concrete pieces or rusty nails. Hoisting myself up to the first floor, I tested the damp plywood with a tentative step and it felt like the landing would support my weight. Safe to explore, I decided.

The rooms were not much to see, mostly frames and half-done walls…but that view.

Wow, that view.

Such a gorgeous vista of pounding surf and tropical paradise. I sat for a while and took in the view, thanking God for the treat of enjoying His colorful and spectacular creation.

It also made me a little sad somehow. This beautiful view would probably not be enjoyed by the people who were meant to live here, because their house had never been finished. Their vision started well, I could see, but they likely would miss out on enjoying this unbroken ocean view.

I sensed an internal whisper: This is your book.

It felt to me like the Lord’s voice, a gentle challenge. My manuscript was like this house, off to a good start but never finished. Some flooring, a few half-made walls, an incomplete roof, but not really livable for anyone else.

If anyone were to enjoy this house, the builder would have to finish. This subjective metaphor to me meant I would have to do the hard work, room-by-room, wall-by-wall, and floor-by-floor to finish my manuscript. I felt God had invested something precious in me a long time ago—a view of eternity—and I would have to keep plodding along for that beautiful view to ever see the light of day. My end goal would be to make it easier for the next visitor to come on in and enjoy an inviting house, complete with a trimmed sidewalk and a welcoming staircase.

I took a little seashell from the beach as a reminder of this metaphor, and vowed to start plugging away. Just get words down on the page. My mantra became a sentence is better than no sentence. Celebrate progress, even if it’s just a little bit.

I started keeping track of my word count, which was key for me to chart progress. My stitched-together chapter of blog posts was about 10,000 words, and I vowed to start making a little progress when I could, usually in the mornings. It wasn’t easy with all our transition. A few months after that Bali vacation, we moved from Indonesia back to the U.S. for a few months, and then six months later to a different country in Southeast Asia for four months. We planned to be there longer, but a worldwide pandemic had other plans, and as of this writing we are still trying to get back. All of that transition has equaled 22 moves since we left our home in Indonesia in the summer of 2019. We are weary with transition, for sure, but the writing has given me a nice little thread of joy to hold on to through the long journey.

10,000 words slowly became 12,000 words. Starts and stops. 12,000 words slowly became 18,000 words. A little here, a little there. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, to quote Finding Nemo. Just keep building, just keep roofing, just keep writing.

18,000 words to 25,000 words. Rooms taking shape. Window put in.

I got to the halfway mark (the final word count came to 53,000 words), and I could start to see the end. It was like a massive jigsaw puzzle, after you turn all the pieces right-side up, make the borders, and start filling in major chunks, and then you finally start seeing the end. That’s how it’s felt for the last several months.

I finished the first draft in November and my family took me out to a fun restaurant in Austin to celebrate. Gotta mark those milestones.

Editing. Feedback. Revising. More Editing. More feedback. More revising. Formatting. I have so appreciated the many people who have given input, both theological and editorial.

Days ago I put the final touches of paint on the shutters and trimmed the hedges out front along the sidewalk. Wow, that was a good feeling.

Sitting and resting and looking over the ocean now. Excited for you to come in and enjoy this view with me.

Available now in paperback and Kindle e-book on Amazon.

P.S. Contact me if you would be willing to join my book launch team, which would mean reading it and posting a review on Amazon before the major launch date of June 25. Also, to help me get the word out, if you post on social media about how it impacted you, using the hashtag #UnearthingHeaven between now and then, I’ll send you the Kindle versions of my first two books for free as a thank you!

More here: Facebook Group Book Launch Team