February 7th, 2014

Hey, everyone!

Hope your heart is warm with praise to the Lord of all the earth…even though your toes might be a little chilly and wet, walking around in His world these days!

We're so pumped! Can you hear it? "bum BUM ba-bum bum Bum bum…bum buddity bum…babum bum bum buddi-Bum bum bum…buddi-bum bum…!"

(Oh, sorry. That was the Olympic theme song.)

We love the Olympics 'round our house! Y’know, the Winter Olympics have a whole other suspense than the Summer ones do. In the Summer Games, you’re wondering, “Who’s going to cross the line first?...Who’s going to touch the wall first?...Who’s going to go higher?...” In the wintry sports, it seems that so much of it is about just one question....

 “Will he fall on his can?”

“Will she land on her behind?”

“Are they all going to wind up on their b#tts?”

From the speed skating to the snow boarding cross to the half-pipe, it’s all about doing what you do best on the slickest, slidy-est, slippery-est places they can find, with most of the world watching,  and trying to finish without a soakin' wet rear end…or worse, a black ‘n blue one!

And those figure skaters! They so graceful…until they’re not! Wham!! They hit it harder than anyone! They look like gliding swans until they slip, do the back-side-first landing and try to get up, looking like a duckling just hatched from the egg! When TV shows it in slow motion, and you can watch the moment of “rear end impact” start the “wave” through their whole person…well, I have to take some Advil just from seeing it!

Last night, the American guy Jeremy Abbott was just starting to do his skating thing. This was BEFORE the Opening Ceremonies. In other words, the Olympics he'd been preparing four years for, hadn't even started! 17 seconds into his thing…swoosh…swoosh…oops!…WHAAAAMMMM!! He hit so hard I thought his rear was going to break thru the ice and wind up in the water! (I guess there isn't water under the ice, is there?)

What if you had to do your job with everyone watching and wondering the same thing…”You gonna crash onto your behind?”

I’m so thankful Jesus isn’t like me when I watch those Games! When we fall…when we flop…when we splat on our can, He lets us get up every time! He lets me start over. He doesn’t remember it even happened! 

Paul says, “Forgetting what is behind, I press on to the prize…!”

And because He always lets us start over and stays with us no matter what, Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me!”

“Forgetting what’s behind…”

“I can do all things through Him…”

That’s a “behind”… a “can”…I can gladly and happily fall on every day!

Enjoy the Games, folks! 

(Let it go, Jeremy.)