Olympic Skis and Snowboards
Hey, everyone!
Wow! What an awesome day! Here's your Valentine's Day forecast! "Breezy and warmer with a high near 48 degrees. Expect increasing clouds with rain showers sliding in by late afternoon and early evening…But next week, spring-like! ... with highs going from the 50s into the 60s later in the week!"
Spring'll be bustin' out soon! Sounds so awesome, especially after the last couple of days! (We've had more snow then they did at the Winter Olympics!!) If next week's weather was an Olympic event, it’d be “golden”, as they say in the Sochi! (I think that means it’d win the gold medal…)
As the Winter Olympics are rocking', can I share with y’all a few things I've noticed?
Snow boarders are not nervous at all before they bust out their craziness on the slopes and half-pipes…
(Ice skaters, on the other hand…)
The medals are very neat-looking this time…
Curling is way harder…and cooler… than it looks.
Some Winter Olympic sports are only “sport-ish”. They don’t really seem like sports. You wonder how they got in the “Games”…What I mean is…
Some sports in the Olympics are totally…WOW! Snowboard cross…four dudes screaming down a course…jumping, turning, speeding, bumping each other, flying through the air, wiping out upside-down at 30 feet above the frozen ground! It’s an unbelievably cool sport! Why did it take so long to get in the Olympics?!
Other “sports” are…well…they don’t really seem like sports. Tough to know what you’d call ‘em. But they just don’t seem to belong with hockey or the Super G. Like ice dancing. It’s really difficult I bet, but…they’re dancing! They’re not flipping, racing, or smacking a slap shot at the goal…
They’re dancing.
How do you beat someone at dancing? Unless you completely wind up on yer rear…how do they know who wins?
Some things just don’t seem like they make a good competition. It’s not about winning or losing. Like love, for example. We just supposed to love folks. It’s not a race. It’s not about who does it more, better, or with the best style. There aren’t gold, silver, and bronze for love. We’re all supposed to do it! Like Paul said, “Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.” (1 Thesselonians 4.9-10)
Love. It’s not a sport, a race, or a contest, but…
Here's an email that jumped into my inbox the other day. It's from the US coordinator of Victor Nandigam's mission in India…
"Thank you so much for your continued faithfulness to International Christian Partners and the work that God is doing in India. We are amazed and grateful for your graciousness and sacrifice as you give to the ministry in India. It never fails that when we announce a need you respond generously.
I want to thank Pastor Tom Job and Christ Community Church who took on a special need over the Christmas holidays. There are 352 widows in the churches where our missionaries are working. These widows are faithful to pray and to serve. Pastor Job’s church placed tags on a Christmas tree for these ladies and each one was adopted. The money donated was sent to purchase the saris, as well as money to purchase each of the orphans a set of clothes for the New Year. Each year this is a need and hopefully it is one that can be shared by several churches this next Christmas…"
We threw that need out there and to tell the truth, I was a little…ah…"stretched" in my faith! "Will it happen?"
BAM!
I think something like $4900 came in for the widows and Victor's orphans! Victor wrote us and said that so many of the widows were wearing the saris we bought for them last year when they came to receive the ones you gave them this year! And that they will pray for us and our work here! Widows in poverty, in India, in love with Jesus because of love shown to them, pray for you!
I know it’s not a race or a sport, but…
When it comes to loving people with the love of Jesus, the people of Triple C get the gold medal! Y’all are “golden”!!