The 2008 Olympics - what a gift!

I don't know how you feel, but to me this years Olympics were some of the best games I have ever seen in my entire life! The caliber of talent, the competition, the pomp and circumstance - truly memorable! From the opening ceremonies to the closing of the games - it was an amazing sight to see.
China spent over $40 Billion on all aspects of these games and it showed. There probably won't ever be another Olympics with this much flare because quite frankly no other country has this kind of disposable cash to spread around for sports. It stands to reason that perhaps another communist country could try to compete at this level because in a communist country the government controls all the money - so they have complete authority over how it is spent, but what other communist country has this kind of cash? The reason this will never happen in America is that the Olympics is won by a City, not the country - and no city in America could compete financially at this level. Quite frankly thank God they can't - though truly mesmerizing and AWESOME - one has to wonder how many impoverished people could have been lifted out of poverty with this same money spent for pure entertainment.
I digress, the point of this particular blog on the Olympics was to talk about all the amazingly talented and gifted athletes at this years Olympics. The Olympics has always been about the best athletes in the world coming together on one "stage" to perform their skills and determine who is the best of the best! What we witnessed this year was amazing. It seems that we saw more world records and Olympic records broken at this Olympics than at any other Olympics in history. For me, watching Michael Phelps in the pool was so amazing and awesome. The commentators explained that Michael is so good because of his tall size, his huge "wing span", and his HUGE feet that can bend all the way back so that they act like swim fins. You can explain it anyway that you want - but the truth is that GOD uniquely gifted Michael Phelps with his physique to do exactly what he does! Guess what - God has also uniquely gifted you and me to do something amazing during our life time. We each come into this world with unique gifts and talents - Given to us as a gift from our Creator - a God who loves us and wants us to identify this gift and live out our faith through His gift to glorify Him! Our biggest challenge is to identify this gift and develop it. How could we do anything less?
It is when we forget our roots, when we forget who gave us everything we have to begin with, that we get into trouble. You hear everyday about successful people who have lost it all - perhaps it is because they started believing that they created their own success and forgot about the God who gave them the gifts and abilities to create that success in the first place. Then you hear about other people who have had great success, always thanked God for their blessings, and give most of their wealth away to those less fortunate. I believe this is what we are called to do. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and Love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Life is amazingly complicated at times, or is it?

Is life complicated, or do we make our lives complicated with self induced complication? If you never signed up to do anything, if you were not involved in any other activity other than your job, would your life be complicated? Is it human nature to make things complicated, even when there really is nothing there to make your life complicated? I ask these questions because I do have a job that keeps me very busy with 100's of customers and a large geography that requires weekly travel. Since I can't say no to anything - I am very involved with my church as a weekend worship leader, pioneering a new urban ministry, and involved with small groups. For fun and recreation I am on a sailing crew on a Melges 24 that sails year around throughout the country. I run every day and participate in as many 5 and 10K's as I can. I am also very involved in my kids activities - even though they are both grown and out of the house - but it's hard to not be involved with them in all of their activities too. My wife and I are also in that sandwich mode where we are constantly thinking about our aging parents and wondering what life may throw at us from that direction as well. All in all, life is good! Oh, did I mention that we are trying to sell our home of 16 years and moving downtown KC into a loft to be an integral part of our church's urban ministry team? We are VERY excited about this, however we must sell our home to do it. We already have the loft reserved, but we need a buyer for our house!
With all this stress - mainly because of the house situation - sometimes it is hard to stay positive. However, you have to ask; what is the alternative? You must stay positive and have hope, because otherwise you would waller in self pity and continue to feel overwhelmed! At times this is very hard to do - mainly when I have not had enough sleep. When I am tired, I tend to get "stinkin thinkin" much easier than when I have had plenty of rest. Good nutrition, plenty of rest, daily exercise and prayer are keys to staying positive and maintaining hope. Life at times is very difficult, for example, right now we are not facing any major health issue's. Life gets real hard and even scary when you are facing a life threatening illness. And this is where you better have your spiritual well being in good order - you must know where you came from and who will ultimately bring you home - knowing these things gives us the hope that everything will be OK, no matter what happens. Life is Good - God is good!