In the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, sprinter Bob Hayes tied the Olympic record on his way to winning the gold medal in the 100-meter dash. Just a few months later, Hayes was dashing past defensive backs as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. It was a radical idea at the time: taking a world-class sprinter and turning him into a football player. Hayes’s success altered defensive strategy and changed how football was played.

Paul “Bear” Bryant, born on September 11, 1913, once said, “It’s not the will to win that matters; everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” September 11, 2001, will forever be remembered as one of our country’s worst tragedies; however, on September 11, 1983, I experienced my own tragedy. On that day, I suffered a spinal cord injury during a football game. I dislocated three vertebrae in my neck, and was told I would never walk again and could be permanently paralyzed from the neck down. Today, twenty-two years later, I am confined to a wheelchair.

C.S. Lewis, one of last century’s most influential and prolific Christian authors, in writing about tithing said that if it doesn’t impinge upon one’s lifestyle, then he isn’t giving enough. The giving of money to the work of the Lord, he said, should involve some sacrifice.

In this account from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is awakened by His disciples when a storm seems to be threatening their lives. In the middle of what they considered a frightening situation, Jesus asks them, “Where is your faith?”

Once at a summer camp, I observed three kids struggling to maneuver a canoe in a small pond. As the camp counselor sat on the shoreline and yelled directions to them, the children became confused and scared. From what I could tell, their feelings were probably brought on by the fact that they were not listening to the counselor or that they were just making wrong decisions. Nonetheless, they didn’t understand how to properly paddle and they lacked the faith that they would be safe.