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My oldest daughter, Stephanie, graduated from Millard North High School in May 2004. Just a few weeks later, on June 16, 2004, she was a passenger in a car that ran into a tree, and instantly she was taken to be with the Lord. Stephanie was never interested in sports like our other two children, Jacob and Abby, but she did understand that to have a team, you need at least two. She wrote the following poem, "A Team Needs at Least Two,” about a year before she died.
Hockey Chat: On the business side of hockey, it’s all personal. Although the good players create a fun game to watch, many teams (all that I know of) spend time with the community as well. In turn the community spends money on tickets and merchandise which in turn goes back into the players salaries. Both the players and fans appreciate each other and enjoy the relationship. If the players were rude and disowned the fans then the fans would fall away and not support the team.
Hockey Chat: When you’re on defense, one of the worst things you can do is let your opponent stand in front of your net waiting to tip the puck, get a rebound, or just screen your goal tender. Detroit scored buckets of goals against Colorado in 2007 doing just that and swept them right out of the playoffs. You cannot let that guy stake his position there. It takes work to get him away but if you let him stick around, he’s bound to cause trouble.
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. Turning a world-class sprinter into a football player was a radical concept at the time, yet Hayes’s success altered defensive strategy and changed how football is played.
Eight years ago, I started the simple discipline of picking a one-word theme for the upcoming year. That’s right—one word—not a phrase or statement, just a single word. And to this point, it has been nothing short of life changing. Through this exercise, God has stretched me spiritually, physically, and emotionally. This exercise cannot be approached alfheartedly. Satan will come out in full force. This is truly a discipline for those who want to press in and see God do great things through them.
It’s for those who want to live life to the fullest—no retreat, no regrets. It’s also a process of teaching, correcting, and molding, for when we are soft in the Creator’s hands, He can form us into His vessel!
Hockey Chat: On the business side of hockey, it’s all personal. Although the good players create a fun game to watch, many teams (all that I know of) spend time with the community as well. In turn the community spends money on tickets and merchandise which in turn goes back into the players salaries. Both the players and fans appreciate each other and enjoy the relationship. If the players were rude and disowned the fans then the fans would fall away and not support the team.
Our power lies not in our perfection, but in our pursuit. We are a results-driven people, especially athletes. Perfection is the goal and we do what it takes to get there, even if that means sacrificing what really matters. There is much good in wanting to perform well. However, tunnel vision comes when we place our worth, security, and joy in our idea of perfection. But we can never arrive at perfection. Perfection has no power because it leaves us empty. Pursuit, on the other hand, holds what is real. Pursuit says, “I’m not perfect, but I will do what I can with what I have in the moment I have been given, in the midst of where I am.” In pursuit we find God.
So many times we hear the word hypocrite and automatically think bad things. Ask someone why they don’t go to church, and they will often say that it is because the church is full of hypocrites. In his article "Two-faced People," Tim Stafford states that a hypocrite might be called a counterfeit Christian. That comparison really sheds light.
Why do people create counterfeits? Because what they are replicating is valuable. No one fakes a traffic ticket or a bad report card. They fake $20 bills. Stafford goes on to say that people will pretend to be rich or great football players but not child-beaters. And in the same way, people will pretend to have a relationship with God because they see it as something valuable.
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