Michael Phelps stands 6 feet, 4 inches tall.
Simone Biles stands 4 feet, 8 inches tall.
If you’re decent at math, you’ve already figured out that there is almost a two-foot difference between them, but that doesn’t tell the whole story, even though that’s the part of the story that most people would notice first.
There may be a difference in their size, but there’s a similarity in their health.
Sure, Phelps is tall and Biles is, ummm, less tall, but both of them are world-class athletes who spent considerable time at the pinnacle of their respective careers, and between them, they have 30 gold medals (23 for the swimmer and 7 for the gymnast).
So to make a snap judgement about them based on their size would be premature and, more than likely, inaccurate. The same could be said for linemen in the NFL who, at first glance, look like men who just like to sit around and eat donuts. But if you made that assumption on a football field, you’d get hurt when all that weight ran through you at top speed. They may be big, but they can move!
We even have expressions to remind us of this truth:
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“All that glitters isn’t gold.”
The Bible has a saying, too. “Man looks on the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart.” You can read that along with the rest of the story in 1 Samuel 16:7.
I could write a lot about the inside versus the outside, and how much time and money we spend trying to look better without putting as much effort into trying to be better, but I’ll save that for 2025. The purpose of this post is simply to encourage other pastors who feel like Simone Biles in a Michael Phelps world.
For too long, the church world has judged the churches in that world by their size, but I see the tide shifting in the coming years. I see a church culture that finally figures out a metric for judging a church’s health, more than a church’s wealth or size. I see a culture where leaders are asked to headline seminars and conferences based on their faithfulness more than just their fruitfulness.
As I look ahead to a new year, I look ahead with my heart clinging to a prophetic promise given to God’s people in Psalm 126:1, and I am asking the Lord to do it again in our day.
“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.”
In the Hebrew, the word for “dreamed” can also mean “restored to health.” May 2025 be a year when the church in America and around the globe is restored to health, and once again applauds the things that lead to it.
As Simone Biles and Michael Phelps can attest, size isn’t one of them.
