Tuesday Thought
Quote of the Week
“‘Where there is a will there is a way,’ is an old and true saying. He who resolves upon doing a thing, by that very resolution often scales the barriers to it, and secures its achievement. To think we are able, is almost to be so – to determine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself.” – Samuel Smiles
What’s stopping you?
Here’s a Super Bowl story that you may not have yet heard. One of the players in the Super Bowl tweeted this yesterday: “2 yrs ago I was told I might never walk again. Just WALKED off plane in Indy to play in The #SuperBowl.” His name is Mark Herzlich. He is a rookie special teams player for the New York Giants.
In May 2009 Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, while he was a star player at Boston College getting ready for his senior season. Instead of lifting and running to get ready for football, he was enduring six-hour chemotherapy sessions. But he never gave up hope. He convinced himself that he would beat the cancer and continue his life as planned. The New York Daily News reports that Herzlich said, “When I got really down about it, I d throw on my college tape that I made and I watched myself run down the field on kickoffs. I watched myself run down and say, ‘That is what is going to get me through it,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t always smiling and happy, but that is what would get me through it” (read the article here).
After playing his senior season a year later than originally planned, he became a member of the Giants this season, and has been a star on special teams (kickoffs, punts, etc.). His teammates say that he is a superstar for winning the battle against cancer.
When I first saw the story, I thought about all the things that people say we cannot do. Either because we are not good enough, or not the right build for it, or maybe not smart enough, or some other barrier they have decided is in our way. Herzlich was told he might not walk, and certainly not play football, but Sunday night he is going to play in the biggest football game of the year. So what’s stopping you?
Video of the Week
A Super Bowl Ad from Chevy
How would you react if you were given a brand new car?
Do you know what God wants you to do? I don’t mean way out there in the future. I mean today.
I’m leaving this afternoon to spend a couple of days in Loveland with the Group people where I will be part of a “field test” of this summer’s mission trip programming. I’m pretty excited to have been invited to do this. I hear there is a lot of new stuff I will be seeing very early. I understand there will be some youth there tomorrow who will go through the worship services and devotions and everything you will do this summer, minus the work. It’s a good way for Group to see how it will work this summer and to fix any problems they didn’t anticipate while writing it.
I’m sure you have heard by now that Tim Tebow threw for exactly 316 yards in his improbable win over the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night. Three – sixteen. Goodness that number sounds familiar. Yes, people are going all goofy trying to find some heavenly significance to it. Of course there is the famous John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…” But what if God was pointing to Leviticus 3:16 which ends with, “All fat is the Lord’s” (really, I didn’t make that up).
