What the Olympics Taught Me

I've loved watching the Olympics ever since I was a little girl. When Pat Lafontaine led the ice hockey "dream team" to Gold all those years ago, I couldn't get my eyes off the television set. Yes, I was still a babe...dare you ask. Or the year that the men's gymnastics team with Bart Conner and Tim Daggett one gold when no one thought they would. Magical. The Olympics also brought us Dorothy Hammill and my dream of being her successor. That however didn't work out too well. First time my feet hit the ice my booty got bruised. Then they brought us Mary Lou Rhetton and my next dream of being her successor too. That didn't work out to well either. Won't even tell you about my first attempt on the vault. Let's just say, I didn't know a body could propel itself so far. Thank God even the walls were padded. But the Olympics have taught me amazing things.

This year it taught me that the old gray mare ain't what she use to be. This revelation came as I was watching the women's gymnastic. I was sitting there and the inane thought came to me, "I bet I can still do that." So, I got myself down on the floor and tried my hand at a back bend. Bent my back alright! Right out of socket. With that I gave up all thoughts of ever achieving Olympic Gold. I also gave up working out for the rest of the week seeing as walking wasn't even working out too well.

But they taught me other things as well. They taught me what the power of disciplining a life and eating three fried egg sandwiches and a pound of pancakes a morning can get you. They can make you Michael Phelps. They taught me that records are made to be broken and someone who does it better will always come up after us. But we should delight in that. It doesn't negate what we did, it just simply celebrates the achievements of another. i.e., Mark Spitz.

I learned we can pass our gifts down to our children. i.e., the young girl who won the Olympic Gold in gymnastics, twenty years to the day that her father lost it by five tenths of a point. I learned that swimmers are part fish and that a forty one year old woman can still run with the youngins', i.e. Dara Torres. I also learned that volley ball people get a lot of sand in their shorts and that Greco-Roman Wrestling is a sport! I learned women can wield powerful swords too. i.e, the first gold medal won by American was won by a woman with a sword! I learned that the men's water polo team and divers need some more material on their swimsuits! And I learned that God's creatures can run like gazelles.

I'm sure if I was more astute I could have learned a whole lot more. But I did leave with one powerful revelation. I was informed that I, yes me, and possibly you too, have been responsible for making every Olympic dream come true for the last eighty years. Betcha didn't know that did you? But yes, I have. How you ask? Because Coca-Cola told me that if I had bought a Coke in the last eighty years that I had. So, here's to my achievements. And here's to yours! And here's to the gold medal I could receive if they ever made drinking coke an Olympic Sport! And here is mine and Sophie's tribute...and I may not have a gold medal around my neck, but I sure have a lot of priceless treasures in my life...

Our Story-Delighted

Befriended, befriended by the King above all Kings
Surrendered, surrendered to a friend above all friends
Invited, invited deep into this mystery
Delighted, delighted by the wonders I have seen

My brother just threw a surprise party for my sister-in-law. The poor guy was so petrified something was going to go wrong that I think we received about ten e-vites. (I'm still amazed he knew how to do an e-vite.) But it was all for that moment when she would turn the corner, a group of her closest friends would yell surprise and that look would be captured on her face. He wanted to see that look. That look of sheer delight.

I believe God does that as well. I believe there are things he does for no other reason than to delight us. In the twenty first chapter of John Jesus' disciples are out fishing. Jesus as already risen from the dead, He's visited them on two other occasions, but this particular morning he shows up on the seashore. They fished all night and caught nothing. He hollers out to them, "Caught anything."
"Nope."
"Why don't you try throwing your net on the other side of the boat."
They give it a whirl. And the catch is ginormous! Too much to even get all those flapping creatures in the boat.
And immediately John says, "It's the Lord."
And Jesus gets to enjoy the delight on there face.

I might think it was about the food if when they make it to shore Jesus didn't already have dinner on the grill. But He does. So, it can't be about the food. So, couldn't it be that He just wanted to enjoy delighting His children? I think it could.

About a year ago I was given the opportunity to audition for a commercial. A friend has a modeling and talent agency and needed some models in my "age bracket". We know what that means don't we...I laughed and said, "Sure, you call me when you are in dire straights." Well, she did. And I went. Here I was with my midget self, "dressed the part", of a housewife who is supposed to be painting a room. I've got on a tennis shoes, jeans and a sweatshirt. And every other girl sitting around me is leggy and lean and looks like a supermodel. If there had been a hole to crawl into the only thing sticking out of it would have been my booty...

So, I audition and have to admit caught an element of delight in the eyes of the lady that shot it, but still wasn't thinking Academy Award. Got in the car and had a good old laugh with my mom on the way home. Weeks past and I had laid my starry eyed delusions of fame down when I got a call. They wanted me. Quit laughing! They did. But they wanted me for a date I couldn't do it. It was a trip I couldn't reschedule and one I had told them about on the day of my audition. I just said sorry. A week later, they had changed the shoot date and hired me. I was driving home, just giddy. Laughing and "processing" and the Lord broke through my head and said, "You may forget things, but I never forget."

When I was a little girl I had done musical theater all throughout school. Loved it. Thought I'd make a great lead on a soap opera, but didn't quite know how to get to Hollywood. Gave it all up for reality and ended up creating my own form of drama on the written page. I had forgotten how much I had loved it. He hadn't.

I've asked myself why there are moments in my life that I miss Him when He comes to delight. I could have enjoyed that moment but never given Him the opportunity to break through and see that it was Him. That He had moved the world to delight me. Okay, maybe just a shoot date, but to me it may as well have been the world.

I think there are a few reasons moments like that are missed. One is despair. When Job was in his deepest sorrow He said, "I look for him in the east but he isn't there. And to the west but I can't perceive him." Sometimes our crisis moments turn our eyes so inward that we're not looking for where He might be moving, we're only looking for where it doesn't seem He is. And we get so focused on the "us" of that moment we miss the Him.

But I bet if you think back there were moments when you could see Him. When He felt exceptionally near. In the car maybe, when you'd turn on the praise and worship music. In the first moments of morning before it was over run by children and demands. In the evening out on the back porch, when the world had finally shut down to breathe. Maybe if you go back there, you will have your spirit renewed and your eyes be able to focus on something other than the crisis that has surrounded. I think the disciples went back to fishing because that's where the met Jesus the first time. And they wanted to be as close to that as they possibly could.

For others I think sin removes our ability to see. We're told in Corinthians that "repentance removes the veil." Sin in our lives keeps us blind. We're focused on fulfilling our wants, our whims, our wishes. We're focused on satisfying that endless thirst in the depths of our soul and leaving no room for the Creator of it. And so our heart can't see. But when we repent, we turn, we see.

I challenge you today to take God to the secret places. To the places of hidden imaginations. I know we think we hide them from Him. But He sees even what we try to hide. And in ridding ourselves of secret worlds, God will deliver hidden treasures of delight.

Regret can be a delight killer too. See, the disciple John is the one who recognized Jesus. And he turns and tells Peter. Peter had just recently denied Jesus three times and was devastated over the capability of his own betrayal. And right after Jesus reveals himself there on the seashore he looks at Peter and deals with his regret.

If Peter would have stayed in that pit of regret than his story would have been void of the chapter where he was the father of the Christian church. Can you imagine having that cut from your story? But he was. Why? Because once and for all he let go of the regret. Regret will give us nothing but sorrow. And when God forgives, He forgives completely. Our choice to hold on to regret will simply remove His ability to use us in the future, and important chapters of our story will be divinely altered. What a tragedy, to live with something God is so willing to remove.

But what creates an avenue for delight? Relationship. Bringing God into those intimate places of our life. Befriending Him. Surrendering to Him. Inviting Him. We each have a story. A powerful epic. For some of us we have battles to fight. For others you have beauties to rescue. And for others we have laughter to deliver. But we have a story. And in the middle of all of the pages God simply wants to delight us. Hard to believe in a crazy world with wars and famine and poverty that He really would care if His children are surprised, but He does. That's why He tugs on the hearts of some individuals to bring orphanage relief, so that His children with no earthly father can receive the delight of their heavenly father when they hold a new ball or play with a new doll.

He cares about their delight and He cares about ours. May we let Him write our story. And may we recognize and then enjoy the moments that He stops the pages to delight us...

Comment to Anonymous

My precious friend,

The beautiful thing about God is that His love invites each of us. Your invitation comes as beautifully packaged and as elegantly embossed as mine. But the stories of our lives will be different. Your road and my road will not look alike. Your pains and trials will not look like mine. Nor your amazing discoveries. Why? Because what He desires to accomplish through us and with us is not the same. What is the same is the invitation. Coming from the same Father, extended with the same grace. My sweet friend, I think the one thing that makes me love the Lord all the more is the fact that He can call a mother Teresa and still call an "over processing", often dramatic, needy soul like myself. The distance is not between you and I. The distance is between us and Him. That's why He span the chasm. May He reveal His great love to you, and may anything in your heart that clouds it be laid to rest...

But the only thing you or I need to know, separate of all I've just said, is that if it had only been you or only been me He would have still died. Thus proving that each of us is loved in the same extravagant way.

Invited Over a Stack of Dirty Dishes...

So my company leaves Monday night and I'm standing over the sink staring at the dirty dishes. My mind is spinning, my addiction to "over processing" has begun and the tears begin to fall on the William Sonoma tan and cream striped dish towel in my hand. They came to support me and implementing a new vision that I feel like the Lord has given me. They were kind enough to take an evening away from their families and help me. They had so many wonderful ideas and so much information and I was mildly, okay, ginormously overwhelmed...(I know that is so not a word, but it completely fits.)

As I'm gathering my emotions I hear that sweet voice of my Father and Friend. "He says I can walk through this with you." And I realized that moment He was inviting me to invite Him into this moment in my life. I've spent the last year learning how to retrain myself. For years whenever something exciting or overwhelming occurred I made one phone call immediately. That person is no longer available. So, this year I have been learning that even though my first reaction is to call my mother or my best friend, but I feel that tug, "invite me." So I have. I've invited Him to my most vulnerable places. And what I've found is He has been trustworthy with them. That's why when He gave the invitation Monday night I did.

There over caked on pot roast, small plates covered in left over syrup we had dipped our homemade biscuits in, (Yes I make homemade biscuits. I love Carole Faye, but she ain't got nothing on me!), I invited Him. Wish I would have thought about it before He asked. Maybe that will come. Who knows. I'm just grateful He still invites. I pray when He invites you to invite Him this week, whether in the car, washing the dishes, wiping up sticky hand prints off of glass paned windows, that you'll say, "Come right on." I can tell you from experience, it made cleaning those dishes a lot more enjoyable...

Best,
Denise

Our Story-Invited

(Me and Miss Carole Faye, the Biscuit Lady at Loveless Cafe. She invited me to eat some of her biscuits. I gladly accepted. Some invitations only have to be made once.)

Befriended, befriended by the King above all kings Surrendered, surrendered to the friend above all friends Invited, invited deep into this mystery

Imagine that you stick your hand into the abyss of your black mailbox. You’re expecting ten magazines from companies you’ve never heard of, at least five bills from companies you wish had never heard of you, but you’re not expecting this. An invitation. You thought graduations were over and everyone you knew that was getting married had already gotten married. But you now hold in your hand a thick cream envelope, with your name written in calligraphy and you know it’s an invitation. You groan slightly (You know you do…) because most invitations require something of you. Usually something that costs.

You open it, mostly because you just don’t have a clue who it from. It simply reads, “You’re invited to a journey.” No destination announced. Only promises “extreme adventure.” The catch, well, it does have a cost all right. “Everything.”
Would you go? Better yet, would you go if you had no idea who the sender was? But what if the invitation came from your father? Your best friend? Would that make a difference? Or would the fact that the journey is a mystery be enough to check “No” in the RSVP box?

Abraham got an invitation like this. An invitation by the Creator of the Universe to go to a land that he would have to trust God to discover. But if he was willing to go, not only was God going to make a great nation out of him, but God was also going to bless him and make him famous. (You want to go now don’t you!) He was also going to bless everyone who blessed him and curse everyone who cursed him.

Would that be enough for you and I? Would an invitation into something wonderful and exciting, yet unknown and expensive, be worth the risk? Well, it was enough for Abraham, because as soon as God delivers the invitation, Abraham did what we’ve learned he usually does. Scripture says simply this, “Abraham departed.”

Again, there is no dialogue. No, “I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me where we’re going. I’m not leaving here without a ten-step program for my life. I’m not moving here until we have the next five years clearly defined. I’m not taking a step until you let me know where we’re going to end up.”

And I wonder, as I did last week, what would have happened if there had been this exchange of dialogue? What would have been missed if Abraham hadn’t simply departed?

Don’t know if you realize it, but we have been invited. The Man who invented the party has invited us to the party. Yet there is one thing that remains unknown. We have no idea where that invitation will take us. When He invited His disciples all he said was “Come follow me…and I will make you fishers of men.” And every time with each invitation we’re told, “At once they left their nets and became His disciples-sided with His party and followed Him.” (Told you He invented the party!)

If you ever wondered if you were invited, you were. Before the foundations of the world, before your mother knew your sex, before you made your entrance, produced your first cry, drew your first breath, you were invited. The challenge for so many is that it is a mystery.

We have no idea what lies ahead. We have no idea what the journey will unfold. We don’t know if sacrifice will be required. We don’t know if years of waiting will be demanded. We don’t know if pain will be endured. We don’t know…and for a generation who has to be in the “know”, or think we’re in control, this is a huge sacrifice.

But the one thing I do know is that in going, Abraham became a friend of God. It was in that one step of faith that set the course for the Abraham moment we talked about two weeks ago, where God takes him into His secret counsel.

Can you imagine if the invitation in our mailbox had been from the White House? And this is your dream so you can pick the President that resides there. Just know, it’s a President you voted for and he wants you there for a special dinner. No one else. Just you and him and he wants to talk with you about your story and the plans he has to help you live it out to the fullest. Would you go? Honey, I wouldn’t just be going, I’d be going with a new dress, my nails done, my hair coiffed, my heart palpitating, my palms sweating and my expectations soaring.

Well, an invitation from one greater has come. And He invites us into this mystery of our story. And even though when I began this journey with the Lord my future was a mystery and I had no idea of the joys, the pains, the challenges, the waiting that I would endure, I also never knew the depths in which He would allow me to know Him. And truth is, there is much in this life I’m glad I didn’t know. Or, if in the knowing, I would have more than likely never made the journey. And that would have been far more tragic than my moments of tragedy.

And please know this is an invitation that costs everything. We he called the disciples for many that invitation costs them their very lives. (Another reason God wisely keeps our stories a mystery.) But I also know that He gives life more abundantly.

We also need to know we won’t be invited just once. There will be many times in the course of our stories that God will invite us to a new place, a new level, a new opportunity. Will we go? Or will fear keep us from the adventure? When God invited me to a new chapter in my story last year I went. Now, I must say I didn’t go quite as non-confrontational as Abraham. I think I bucked some, hollered some, cried some, and kept my hand over my eyes for the first couple months. But one day God invited me again, “Hey baby girl, why don’t you take your hands off of your eyes and see what I’ve got planned for you.” And I did. And I’m not even capable of writing the beauty that I’ve seen. Worth the cost? Absolutely. Paid a high price? Higher than one I would have ever wanted to. Glorious adventure? Life changing. May the mysteries of our stories continue…

Our Story-Surrendered

Befriended, befriended by the King above all kings
Surrendered, surrendered to the friend above all friends...

Ooh, surrender. Doesn't even sound pleasant does it? Immediately pictures of white flags sticking out of windows or fox holes come to mind. Surrender goes hand in hand with "losing battles," and "falling into the hands of the enemy." But there is a different type of surrender. The friend kind. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend," the writer of Proverbs tells us. So, if we're becoming friends, "know you by your walk" kind of friends with the Creator of the Universe, then we're talking about a completely different kind of surrender. We're talking about a surrender that could change the very essence of how our story is written.

I can't think of anyone who was asked to surrender more than Abraham. Even though the Bible is full of people who lost their children, Adam, David, Job, Ruth, Mary, only one person in the Bible was asked to sacrifice their child in an act of obedience the way Abraham was.

Now, before Abraham ever had his son Isaac, God came to him and told him that he would have a son and he was to call him Isaac (Laughter). Can't think of anything funnier or horrible than being a hundred and having a baby! So the name seems perfect. But Abraham was told that it would be through this child that Abraham would become the father of many nations.

So, after Abraham and Jesus' talked about saving at least 10 righteous, Abraham and Sarah find themselves having this son God has promised. And laugh they did! And everybody else did too! As Isaac grows older we're told that God came to "prove" Abraham. He calls Abraham by name. And immediately Abraham acknowledges the call. "Here I am". I love that. Immediately, He answers. That's because he knows the voice of his friend so well... But this is a request that you wouldn't think would come from a friend. God tells him to take his son, the one he loves so much and offer him up as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains that the Lord would direct him too.

What is most powerful about this passage of scripture to me is what isn't there. Because the very next verse says, "So Abraham rose early in the morning..." What? No screaming? No shouting match to the heavens? No flayling fists and midnight bargains? Just getting up and going along as if its just another day? But that's what we read. Nowhere do we read that Abraham debated the issue of complete surrender to His Father.

Theologians will probably debate the reason for centuries. And since I'm no theologian I won't even try. I'll just give my thoughts as simple as they may be. Maybe, just maybe, there was such a depth of friendship, such a deep level of trust, in his Heavenly father, that Abraham knows somehow, someway God is going to make all of this work out. After all, God Himself had already told Abraham that it was going to be through this boy that he was going to be the father of a great nation. So, God would either stop him, or raise Isaac from the dead. But he knew God would accomplish what He said.

Surrender? Is there any greater act of it recorded in the Bible? Any clearer example of it revealed in the Word of God? And Romans tells us that "Abraham believed (trusted in) God, and it was credited to his account as righteouness." Abraham was saved through his trust in God.

Shoot, I don't know about you but some days I have trouble trusting Him to work out simple situations, lead me in my next step, provide for my next need, let alone trusting Him should He ask me to surrender something as precious as a child. So, how does Abraham get there? Relationship. God already proved His word by giving Isaac to Abraham. The first covenant God ever made was with Abraham. He brought Abraham into his secret place when they talked about the righteous people left in Sodom. Daily walking with God built a trust, a confidence, a faith in God so great that when he asked of Abraham the ultimate sacrifice, Abraham simply began walking. That too is how we get there. Relationship. Daily walking this life out with God. And through that we learn that there is nothing that He will ask of us that He won't give us the ability to do, and the resources to accomplish.

There was a sacrifice made that day, but it wasn't Isaac. No, God stayed Abraham's hand. But there was a ram that was caught in the thicket that became the sacrifice. Do you know what I've always envisioned? I've always imagined that as Abraham was walking up one side of that mountain in an act of complete surrender to His Father and Friend, God was walking up the other side of that mountain leading that ram. And if Abraham hadn't gone all the way to the top, he would have never gotten to the ram.

I'm not sure what you might be asked to surrender today. A dream maybe, your will, your illusion of control. Maybe your being asked to trust God with your child or your marriage or your finances. And holding on as tightly as you can seems far more appealing. Safe even. But are we really? Is what we hold really safer in our hands then in the hands of our Faithful Father? Or is my unwillingness to surrender causing me to miss the ram in my thicket? God won't leave us with wasted sacrifices. God honors obedient hearts. And he never asks anything of us that He doesn't give us even more in return.

Surrender changed the story. If Abraham had not walked up that mountain, but had held onto Isaac, this powerful story would have never been written. And you and I would never have this example of the faithfulness of God. Will our unwillingness to completely surrender all that we are, all that we have, to the Creator of our Souls cause someone to miss the powerful display of His love in our story? I'm guessing the answer is yes. Don't know about you, but I don't want anyone to miss how God shows up in mine...

Befriended

Sure have enjoyed being befriended this week. I was walking the other morning listening to Israel Houghton's song, "I am a Friend of God". Just reminded me of what a privilege that really is.

Then I was having lunch with a friend on Thursday and she was talking about the "befriended" blog and why Abraham stopped at 10 people. I told her about something I had heard one of my pastors say one time, "I'm not sure if Abraham stopped at 10 because he was afraid to go any farther, or if he knew that was as far as God would go."

I'm thinking his friendship had him able to see it in Jesus' face. "This is as far as we can go buddy. Just 10." And Abraham stopped. I want to know Jesus that way. I want to recognize his walk and his face:)