Let the Games Begin

I not a fan of the smell of spilled beer flowing between my feet from a couple seats down.  Hot dogs with mustard and onions - I can take.  Baseball's a game where miracles can happen.  I'm a little bummed that Baseball and Softball are not Olympic sports anymore.  But I do enjoy the sports - especially watching them.  The Games of the XXX modern Olympiad begin this week.  World class athletics!


I am in awe of people who can ski the alpine downhill at 80 mph.  Or - how about the first Brit to win the Tour de France?  He cycled (bi-cycle - peddling) some 2100 plus miles.  Running a marathon?  Pole vaulting? Landing a quadruple toe loop on figure skates - with grace?  Driving a race car while enduring 5 G's in the corners in the 120 degree heat, knowing a mistake can kill you?  Hitting a major league pitch thrown at 90 plus mph by judging it 1/1000th of a second?  If I could pull it off successfully three out of 10 times I'd land a multimillion dollar contract.
Sports feats are difficult. No doubt. They take endurance, skill, training and talent (hopefully foster some world peace?), but ultimately they aren’t that important. After all, athletic competitions, even the Olympics, are just games.  

Are you kidding me Moses?

Although I have never been in an Olympic competition - I sense that life itself is considerably harder and much more challenging. So what’s the hardest thing to do in life? Here’s a list what I think are the most challenging events in life.  I have not personally experienced all of them - but have known people who have.  I have walked with hundreds through these challenges.  I know my list is not your list -  all have our own personal challenges that would make our list look different.


For me?

Raising children - Forgiving - Apologizing - Regaining lost trust - Keeping faith in God during trials and tribulations - living homeless - going to bed hungry every night - burying a child - suicide - murder -removing life support from a loved one.


This list makes the complicated judgments involved in skiing at 80 mph, pole vaulting and hitting a baseball look easy. The "life list" is a tough list, but that last one — making decisions about life or death — is one of the toughest. Even when all the medical facts are known and understood, after the prognosis is clear, even when the choice is obvious, it is a tremendously agonizing decision to remove a respirator from a loved one. I become the judge. It is like I decide between life and death. Most recently - I have an ongoing conversation with a godly person who has lost his will to live.


Top world athletes, even on their hardest days, never make that kind of choice.  Is it what I expected in life?  Probably not.  But I have learned that regardless of what I expected - it is reality.


It’s in the hard places in my life that I must ask the tough questions while seeking godly truth. Then I should listen to the answers, weigh the evidence, judge and act.  I pray my choices be truth-seeking, not game-playing.  When I am presented with life’s difficult choices do I choose to be expedient rather than do what is ultimately right. Making the right choice isn’t always easy or popular. 

So what’s the hardest thing for me?  Is it learning to forgive when I am hurt? Apologizing when I would rather not?  

Was it raising my children with love, kindness and direction every day, tirelessly? Loving my enemies, both personal and national?  These acts take hope and courage and are more challenging than anything in sports. 

But I'm going to continue to face them. No doubt about it. 


It is said that once, when a batter stepped into the box and made the sign of the cross, Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra, said to him, "Let's just leave God outta this, okay?"
But sometimes, God seems to interfere with the game. (And of that I am thankful).  God expects me to step into the batter’s box. And swing.  And I like that.  I still like "The Games" even without baseball & softball.  Let the Games begin!  Or - did they begin a long time ago?  Suppose it depends on my perspective.