"And great was its fall."

Michael Phelps accomplished something no one else has.

But what he accomplished, he did as a man who swims. Simply stated he swam faster in a certain series of pool events than anyone else before him over a limited span of time. For this he accumulated a series of metals in honor of this achievement. This required years of training, focus and physical endurance. Phelps did this after much hard work in learning to press his body to the limits of human ability. A fine goal and a fine accomplishment. Phelps became a role model and hero to others, many of them children.

While training and winning other competitions, he received the accolades that would teach him that success in swimming might mean a certain degree of fame and fortune. This could not have been his greatest goal, but in high profile sports such success does pay dividends. After winning his medals and setting a new level of performance for others to shoot for, Phelps basked in the media attention, presented himself as a role model, felt the praise and signed million dollar sponsorship contracts with companies willing to promote his image as a wholesome "hero."

Last week we found out otherwise. In a not-so-shocking-in-this-day-and-age way, we discovered that Phelps, who's in his early twenties, used narcotics at a party and was photographed while doing so. This prompted everyone to offer an opinion about how he should be treated now that his hero image has been tarnished. The Hard Truth would like to offer this as an opinion about Phelps. What difference does it make? So what?

First, Phelps is a great athlete. He's probably a nice guy. He's probably got much about who he is that the average man or woman can admire. He did a great thing at the Olympics. But Phelps is like everyone else in the world when it comes to sin. He has (to the media anyway) never claimed to be a Christian. Phelps used his God given body to win medals, and he inhaled chemicals into his God given body to get high. Without Christ, he doesn't glorify God in the first. Without Christ, the sin of defiling the temple God gave him is his own to pay the penalty for. Just like anyone else who has not been blessed by God with saving faith by grace. Without salvation, Phelps is on a level plane with the entire human race. This means he can smoke pot and commit any number of even the most horrendous sins, and probably does, like all of us, but without a trust in God and faith in Christ, he's going to hell for them. To pay the penalty for smoking pot. Defiling his God given body, among other things.

Phelps is no different than any of us. We're all sinners. Even those who are the fastest swimmers.

The Hard Truth about Michael Phelps is that he, like every unbeliever, is lost in their trespasses and sins. For Phelps he now must live with the fact that many young people will look at the picture of him smoking marijuana and say to themselves that such activity must be o.k., "because Michael Phelps can win 8 gold medals in the Olympics and still smoke weed!" Such a sad example to set and such a sad fall when he could have been such a strong example of integrity and hard work, even as a non-believer. We should forgive Phelps and pray for him, like everyone else, both famous and non-famous alike, that doesn't know the Lord.