And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, “Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have two talents more.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy or your master.”

Matthew 25:22-23

I don’t know Stephen Nedoroscik personally. Until a few days ago, I had never heard his name. I’m not in the know on the sport of gymnastics, but like many people, have tuned in to the Olympics this past week. (I am also not a fan of opening or closing ceremonies, I did not watch the opening ceremony, I won’t watch the closing. I watch the “sport” of the Olympics, not the “pageantry” or in this case, foolish controversy.) On Saturday night, during the qualifications for men’s gymnastics, I was introduced to the name Stephen Nedoroscik. He is a member of the five-man gymnastics team representing the United States of America. He wears thick glasses when not competing, which I learned have to do with two eye maladies from which he suffers. He is a self-described “nerd” who solves Rubix cubes quickly. When he is in his Olympic uniform, you can tell that he is a lean, trim and fit athlete. In casual clothes, wearing his glasses, he looks like a chemistry student—I believe he works in engineering. He is not the poster child for gymnastics, not only because of how he looks, but because he doesn’t compete in all six of the men’s gymnastics disciplines. In fact, he only does ONE—the pommel horse.

The story goes that he started doing gymnastics as a young child, learning, as all men’s gymnastics students do, the six disciplines—floor exercise, rings, parallel bars, high bar, vault and pommel horse. As he was entering high school, he (and probably his parents, coaches and everyone else) realized that he was not progressing in FIVE of the six disciplines. He was only good at ONE of them. I can imagine the voices around him being discouraging, and I can imagine that there was a lot of self-doubt going on in his mind. Yet, surprisingly, he wasn’t thrown out of gymnastics. He didn’t quit. Because he realized that he was REALLY GOOD at one of them. In fact, he is among the best gymnasts in the WORLD on the pommel horse. He was selected this year for his first Olympic team. Yet, how can someone who only does one out of six apparatus consider himself part of the team?

On Monday night, during the men’s team final, the last rotation for the United States men was the pommel horse. That means that Stephen Nedoroscik sat through five rotations, watching his teammates, congratulating them, cheering them on, and waiting his turn to do the one thing he does better than just about everyone else in the world. Talk about pressure. But also talk about isolation. This guy is different. In some corners of the gymnastics world, I’m sure there are people who made fun of him in younger years. He looks different. He competes differently. He’s different than probably most people who do gymnastics, certainly very different from everyone competing in the Olympics in gymnastics. When it was his turn to compete, the last guy to take his turn on the last rotation, he came through with a near perfect routine. The United States men’s gymnastics team walked away with its first medal in 16 years. And Stephen Nedoroscik, the guy with the thick glasses, the guy who does only ONE discipline, walked off the floor as an Olympic medalist.

In the world today, we are obsessed with equality, the idea that we all have to be the same. Even worse, we are obsessed with the idea of equity, that we’re all going to get the same outcome, that we are somehow entitled to specific outcomes. Instead of being content “in our lane,” metaphorically, we are crisscrossing all the lanes in life (and on the highways), because either we aren’t content with the lane we are in, or we aren’t even sure in which lane we belong, where we fit.

I don’t know if I’ll ever meet Stephen Nedoroscik. I hope I will. In fact, I will try to correspond with him. Because this is not the guy who has the five talents, in the parable I write so often about. He’s not even the guy with the two talents. He’s the guy with the one talent, who instead of complaining why he does not have five, has developed his one talent to the point of being an Olympic medalist. And he’s just as much of an Olympic champion as anyone else on the team. Because in a team sport, the team wins and loses together. There is room for specialists on teams. Not everyone is going to be a star at everything. Not everyone has to be. Stephen Nedoroscik is living proof of that. But he found his lane, and probably despite doubters out there, maybe even his own doubts, he used his one talent and parlayed that into Olympic glory.

God will not demand a ten talent return from the guy who starts off with one talent. He rewarded the man in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) who started with two and ended up with four the same as the man who started with five and ended up with ten. The lesson here is that we can’t travel in all the lanes of life, we aren’t expected to. If we are so obsessed with being in all the lanes, we will never actually find the lane in which we feel comfortable. And if we find a lane where we fit, then we need to stay in that lane, and do the best we can in that lane, instead of grieving over the lanes of others.

As I watched the gymnastics event the other night, as the camera panned to Stephen Nedoroscik, there was a moment I actually felt sorry for him, the fact that it seemed like the broadcast was so focused on his isolation rather than his uniqueness. And as he helped bring home a medal, I actually stood up and applauded, “good for you,” you aren’t angry about your lane, you’ve stayed in your lane and are among the best in the world at what you do, now going home with an Olympic medal, a big army of fans, and as a living example of what God wants from us—to use what we have to the best of our ability, rather than complaining or mourning what we do not have. Congratulations Stephen Nedoroscik, you are an Olympic champion, but more than that, you are a role model for many people, including me.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the gifts and talents that I have (list some of them, or if it is one, remember that one talent). Help me to understand what my actual talent is (or are), to do my best to develop my talent, to be grateful for the talent I have been given, and to use my talent in a way that will honor You, help and inspire others and bring joy to me. Help those who feel unsure or isolated because of their lane to take confidence in what they have, and to recognize that all you expect from us is to do the best we can with what we have first been given by You. Amen. 

Be content in your lane. Do the best in your lane. Because no one is in your lane but you. And all God’s expects from us is to do well in the lane in which we find ourselves, based on the talents with which He has blessed each of us. Remember, each of us has something. We may not have five talents, but we each have at least one.