Great Life Lessons from the Olympics
I enjoyed participating in many sports when when I was young. Basketball was my favorite, but I also played football and track & field competitively while minoring in golf, tennis, bowling and other athletic pursuits.
One memory tells the tale about how sports motivated me. I would watch various competitions on television and the adrenaline would begin to flow. After the event ended, I remember rising from my chair in the living room, going outside and doing a full sprint across our yard, hurdling a three foot fence with gusto!
If I tried doing that today, I’m sure I would beak both legs and end up in the hospital.
Sports motivated me. It also taught me many valuable lessons that I continue to apply in the more important areas of life.
Here are some of the great life lessons from the current Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
I must admit that my wife and I really enjoyed watching the Olympics this year. I normally go to bed fairly early. But when the Olympics were on, I just couldn’t bear to jump in the sack when the greatest athletes in the world were setting records one continent to the south. I delayed my bedtime to 11 pm and sometimes midnight just to relish the thrill of seeing the best of the best.
In some ways, this year’s games are a pick-me-up from the sad state of this year’s presidential election. Normally, I’m more focused on electing the next leader of the free world. This year I’m greatly concerned– and doing a lot of praying.
I hate to admit that the thrill of the Rio Olympics has served as a pleasant distraction from politics.
I also enjoy the Olympics because I’ve had the privilege of sharing the Gospel at a number of them and can easily picture the scene. Evangelism is also happening this year in Rio–thousands of believers taking to the streets and sharing their faith with those who live in Brazil and have come from other nations.
Youth With A Mission pioneered the concept of using large sporting events as an opportunity to lift up Christ. It began with the 1972 Munich Games where nine Israeli athletes were brutally killed by terrorists. After that tragedy, many young YWAMers took to the streets, passing out roses to comfort the mourning.
I worked with 5000 outreach participants at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. It was a tremendous summer of harvest. One afternoon at the LA Games I was doing street evangelism with a local pastor when I came upon a $100 bill laying in the middle of the sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard. I lunged to pick it up just before another person got there. He was homeless and blurted out, “Oh, you beat me to it!”
We used that occasion to take him out for lunch, share the Good News of salvation with him, and he gave his life to the Lord. We helped him use the remainder of the money to buy some clothes and go on with his life.
I traveled with a King’s Kids team throughout Spain during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. In ’96, we joined with 4000 Kings Kids in Atlanta Georgia in a phenomenal outreach to that great city.
I’ll never forget the Athens Olympics in 2004 when I was standing in the main square of the city with a leading evangelical leader as the worship group Delirious and a number of Olympic athletes shared their faith with the throng of thousands. My Greek friend commented that this was the first time in 2000 years that the Gospel was being shared openly in the Orthodox-controlled nation of Greece.
Historic.
So I have some treasured Olympic memories–especially ones of the heart. But athletic ones also still speak to me.
For example, this Olympics has been extremely insightful. The Bible says that a “person’s gift with take him before kings” (Proverbs 18:16). This year’s Games will be remembered as the one where a few of the greatest athletes of all time showed up in the same city. Not just greatest this year, or greatest in a generation, but greatest of all time. At least three come to mind.
- Michael Phelps, with 23 gold medals in swimming and 28 Medals over all in five different Games is certainly both the greatest Olympian ever and the greatest swimmer bar none.
- Usain Bolt from Jamaica – not only the world’s fastest human, but the greatest sprinter ever in the history of the world. This year he won both the 100 and 200 meters for the third straight time. No one has ever come close to that type of dominance in the sprints.
- Simone Biles – another American who is not only the greatest gymnast in the world at 19, but probably the greatest gymnast ever. She was the world champion for three years prior to taking four golds and one silver in Rio–so dominating the all-around competition that she beat the other competitors by a higher point differential that the combined total of the past eight Games.
I’d stay up to midnight any day to watch little (4 foot 8 inch) Simone Biles work her magic in the floor exercise with a grace and power never ever seen before.
Brought tears to our eyes many nights.
So what are some of the lessons we can learn form this year’s Olympians that can be applied to all arenas of life?
Here are my top seven.
1. Follow your dreams with faith. This is the mantra of most Olympic athletes. They had a dream to be a champion or Olympian and didn’t say no to that dream. In Simone Biles’ case, that meant being home-schooled, skipping all the proms and dances, and working out in the gym. But faith took her to the top.
2. Work hard through the struggles of life. Life is hard and it has many turns and curves that can not only hinder us, but destroy us. But never, never, never give up. Perseverance is the master key to being successful in anything that you do. Keri Walsh Jennings, probably the greatest beach volleyball player of all-time, worked through three excruciating injuries just to make it to Rio. Champions don’t give in.
3. Supportive families – what a blessing they are! I generally don’t like commercials, but some of them during the Olympics were real heart thumpers. One showed a mother cheering on her “Olympian” from the earliest of ages and ended with these words: “It takes someone strong to make someone strong.” (You can watch the full version here.) Amen. Champion your kids dreams and always back them to achieve it.
4. Cheaters don’t prosper – A very telling moment in the Rio Games came when American 19 year-old Lilly King watched a Russian female swimmer compete in an event where she had tested positive for illegal drugs. Lilly waved her finger at her, and then beat her the next night–telling the whole world that she was clean and that cheaters don’t prosper. That’s not always true in life, but it is in eternity.
5. Consistency is a supreme virtue. I again refer you to the greatest athletes of all-time who achieved that status because of their longevity and consistency. You can do the same in your life and job. Be consistent in your words and actions. Develop a lifetime of faithfulness that shows the world who you serve.
6. It takes a lifetime to build a good name and one moment to destroy it. One of the tragic incidents of the Rio Games was the scandal involving celebrated Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte who went partying and drinking with three other American swimmers, tore up a service station trying to find a bathroom, then lied to the world that they had been “robbed.” Lochte was the second most decorated Olympian next to Michael Phelps. He took a lifetime to achieve that goal and threw it away (and probably millions of dollars in endorsements) through one night of excess. Don’t give up your good name for the stupid pleasures of sin.
7. Your most important identity is in Christ. My favorite faith testimony during the Rio Games took place when American sychronized swimmers, David Boudia and Steele Johnson, captured a silver medal. While billions of people were watching, they both turned to the cameras and said, “We could find our identity from diving and the worldwide acclaim, but we know that is fleeting. We find our true identity in the Person of Jesus Christ who never changes.”
Checkmate. Gold Medal. Exactly right.
Our identity is not found ultimately in our achievements, medals, successes or failures–not if we’re world famous athletes or we are a person who is little known.
The greatest gold in life is running the race with Jesus and rooting our being in Him.
Knowing Christ is greater than gold.
Why Do the Democrats Hold an Electoral College Advantage?
As the 2016 US presidential race moves into the final ninety days, there’s been a lot of talk about the Democratic Party’s Electoral College edge that could lead Hillary Clinton to victory.
This advantage is well known, but I’ve never heard anyone explain it Did it just emerge out of nowhere? Did the Dems buy off some states that they now hold in their pocket? Or is there something we can learn about the Electoral College that might give us our marching orders?
Much is at stake in the 2016 contest and beyond. So why do the Democrats hold an Electoral College advantage?
First of all, let talk about the US Electoral College of which most American voters know very little.
It’s an institution that elects the President and VP every four years. Citizens do not directly elect the president or the vice president. Instead, they elect representatives called “electors”, who generally pledge to vote for the leaders their states have chosen via the popular vote.
Electors are apportioned to each of the 50 states as well as to the District of Columbia. The number of electors in each state is equal to the number of members of Congress to which the state is entitled, while the Twenty-third Amendment grants the District of Columbia the same number of electors as the least populous state, currently three.
Therefore, there are currently 538 electors, corresponding to the 435 Representatives and 100 Senators, plus the three additional electors from the District of Columbia. The Constitution bars any federal official, elected or appointed, from being an elector.
Except for the electors in Maine and Nebraska, electors are elected on a “winner-take-all” basis. That is, all electors pledged to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes in a state become electors for that state. Maine and Nebraska use the “congressional district method”, selecting one elector within each congressional district by popular vote and selecting the remaining two electors by a statewide popular vote.
The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) for the office of president is elected to that office.
The Twelfth Amendment also provides for what happens if the Electoral College fails to elect a president or vice president. If no candidate receives a majority for president, then the House of Representatives will select the president, with each state delegation (instead of each representative) having only one vote.
If no candidate receives a majority for vice president, then the Senate will select the vice president, with each senator having one vote. On four occasions, most recently in 2000, the Electoral College system has resulted in the election of a candidate who did not receive the most popular votes in the election (George W. Bush).
Recently, a Republican strategist suggested that John Kasich choose a mainstream Democrat from another state and run a “Unity Ticket” against both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He noted that if these two candidates win their home states, then neither Hillary nor Trump can reach 270 electoral votes, thus throwing the election to Congress as outlined above.)
That’s your civics lesson of the day.
Why did our founders set up this system instead of just using a direct vote of the people?
Because they were smart. They realized rightly that “direct democracy” easily devolves into mob rule and group think. They also didn’t want the bigger states dominating the little ones. That’s another form of tyranny by the masses. They wanted the smaller states to have a fair say–for their votes to be meaningful.
So the Electoral College was born. It’s really a brilliant design to balance the power of large and small.
This brings us to the advantage of the Democratic Party in the Electoral College. Here’s the math to make it simple:
- At the present time, eighteen states in America reliably vote Democrat in every presidential election. Those states are on the west coast and eastern seaboard–and include some very large states such as California and New York. These eighteen states–called the “Blue Wall”–contain 237 electoral votes–just 23 short of what’s needed to win.
- Another fourteen states–most of which are in the Mid-west and South have reliably voted Republican for years. But they are states with smaller populations and thus smaller Electoral College votes. The red States make up 101 electoral votes.
This gives the Democratic Party a huge advantage. Their candidate, unless they’re a murderer or spouse-beater, has a pretty strong lock on 247 electoral votes. They only need to snag a few more states–like Ohio and Florida–or any other combination of smaller states to win.
On the other hand, the Republican standard-bearer needs to run the table of many states to add enough electoral votes to their 101 to triumph.
Thus the “Blue Wall” electoral “lock” of the Democrats. This has been true of every presidential election since Ronald Reagan swept 49 states in 1988. Since that time, the “Blue Wall” has emerged to frustrate many Republican candidates for president.
Why is this so?
Here is the reality behind the electoral math.
1. America is in a world view battle in which the Judeo-Christian worldview is being overtaken by the secular/atheist worldview.
In terms of colors, biblical faith equals red and secular progressive equals blue. Over the past five decades more people have become secular than have been born again in Christ.
2. Secular group think has mushroomed in the urban cities of the west and east coasts.
Take my own state of Washington. For the past few decades, if you color a map of Washington by the votes of each county, then your map would look almost entirely red (Judeo-Christian) except for a blue circle in King County (secular) where Seattle is located. By glancing at the map you might think that Washington is a Red State with a blue dot. But, over half of the state’s population lives in that King County blue circle–so WA is usually locked down for the Dems.
Same is true of Oregon (Portland dominating the redness of the rest of the state), and also California where secular, urban Los Angeles gives the country’s most populous state a definite blue edge.
It’s assumed by most people that Hillary Clinton will win this secular “Left Coast.” Urban folks near the Pacific Ocean have tended to turn away from God, biblical morality and traditional values.
The same is true of most of the city-dwellers of the east coast–where much of the national population lies. Big urban states like New York and New Jersey are Democratic strongholds, and the other cities in other eastern and Midwestern states have become breeding grounds for Democratic votes.
3. The secularizing of the public schools (latter 20th century) and the radical atheism that now rules in academia on a collegiate level is a huge mega-phone for atheism.
Most of our colleges, both public (i.e. state universities) and private (Ivy League Schools) are in the cities growing humanist/secularist philosophy like a sociological cancer. They are also churning out “blue votes” by focusing on humanist causes and bashing those who believe in God and share conservative values.
The atheists have understood the following maxim better than God-fearing people: The philosophy of the schools in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
4. Most of the mainstream media emanates from the cities and multiplies the liberal bias.
Think of the power of Hollywood in the west and Manhattan in the east. The majority of the media outlets in these areas pump out secular progressive news slants on a daily basis ridiculing Christians, advocating for abortion, promoting sexual deviancy, pushing for bgger government, and pointing the culture to man-made solutions instead of humble submission to a Higher Power.
The media are primary sponsors of the growing “Blue Wall.”
5. Human depravity makes it easier to be selfish, secular, and me-oriented rather than developing the strength of godly character.
It’s easier to sin than to be virtuous and self-controlled. So it’s easier to be a Democrat who wants the government to give us everything (like free college education) than to be a Republican and believes you need to work for it and pay for it yourself.
Being liberal caters to the flesh. Judeo-Christians values require character and self-control.
6. There is a devil and a satanic kingdom who are conspiring to bring down the heritage and exceptionalism of the United States through atheist propaganda.
We are not just fighting human words. There is a demonic contingent behind the issues that are trying to destroy both people and nations.
What must the people of God do to knock down the Blue “Iron Curtain”?
First, understand how it was built. Second, pray for God’s awakening of his people to do his will on earth. Third, share our faith with passion as never before! Fourth, possess a greater long-range vision for our neighborhoods, schools, universities, the media and all aspects of government than the other side does.
May God help us.
What the Western World Can Learn From Mongol Families
It’s been heart-breaking for me to watch the disintegration of the family in the West over the past six decades. The family is the bedrock of any society, and in our culture, it is on life support.
Recently a political convention in the United States highlighted that disintegration, and a trip to the nation of Mongolia showed me a better way.
What can the Western World learn from Mongol families?
First, let’s take a look at the satanic strategy in the Western World to annihilate the family unit.
Gary Randall of the Faith & Freedom Network alerted us recently to an LGBT Global Summit that was held within the Democrat Convention in late July. You can read his article here.
One of the leaders, activist Kevin Jennings, formerly with the Obama Administration’s Education Department, said at the gathering, “The future of the LGBT movement hinges largely on the out come of this election.” Another leader, the director of GLAD, told the global gathering, “Let’s dream bigger for a second and let’s think about all students–all students, not just LGBT students.”
That means aiming at all families.
They left their summit with four goals for 2017—all of them aimed at children and the American family.
- Passing the Equality Act (adding LBGT fully to the anti-discrimination laws).
- Defeating state and local laws designed to protect the religious freedom of believing families.
- Going to court relentlessly to mainstream immorality.
- Partnering with other groups such as Black Lives Matter to de-stabilize the United States.
I was stunned when I heard that a major political party–the Democrats–would host such a gathering during their political convention. Both the political parties used to be pro-family and pro-kids.
Now, the Democratic party wants all American children and families to be indoctrinated in sexual atheism. Similar movements are happening all across Europe and the West.
It’s important to re-emphasize that “the Alphabet Community” (they just keep adding letters) is nothing less than a diabolical scheme to confuse and destroy families and children.
This demonic delusion has different aspects to it, including 1) Making fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia and bestiality “normal” and basic “sexual rights,” 2) Destroying the identity of God’s creation of male and female via feminism, masculine impotence and transgenderism (did you know that New York State now has 31 offerings for a person’s gender–not just male and female), and 3) Destroying male and female roles, and with it, the family structure.
This movement to destroy the family began in the 1950s, picked up speed in the 70s when abortion began killing millions of babies, and now has exploded in the Obama years with his relentless pursuit of destroying biblical morality in every form.
Immorality hurts families and kids the most.
A few weeks ago, I was in the nation of Mongolia. It is a land-locked country between Russia and China with a population of about 3 million (another six million Mongols live in northern China and one million in Russia–a consequence of the spoils of World War II).
By Western standards, Mongolia is a poor nation where half the people live as nomads tending their animals and moving their gers (tents). The other half are being urbanized and brought into the modern world. The capital city of Ulaanbaatar now houses half of the nation’s population, some living in apartments and modern dwellings while others reside in ger slums with a hope of upward mobility.
Mongolia is historically a Buddhist nation that saw communism forced down its throat during the Bolshevik Revolution. Today it is a free nation with a small-but-growing Christian population.
During my visit to the land of the Khans (Ghengis Khan is their ancestral hero who created the world’s largest land empire in history during the Middle Ages), I enjoyed three days of Mongol family gatherings during their independence celebration–called Nadaam. During Nadaam, all Mongol families gather with their extended families–much like American do on the 4th of July–to eat and celebrate.
I enjoyed two such gatherings on a mountainside on the outskirts of UB (Ulaanbaatar) and another closer to the Russia border in the countryside. The second gathering was a wild five hour drive across the Mongolia steppe that reminded me of a 300 minute Indiana Jones ride! Much of Mongolia has no roads–just paths across the prairie, around mountains and through streams. There are no street signs or lights–just trails that go in every direction.
On the way home from the remote family gathering, my host showed me an amazing intersection of old and new. I couldn’t figure how he was navigating from the middle of nowhere back to the capital city of UB. He whipped out his phone and said he was just “following my GPS.” The robotic voice kept telling him, “Turn left at this mountain.” “Angle right here.” “Cross the stream there and go straight.”
What an incredible blend of old and new!
Even, more incredible: the beauty and orderliness of the Mongolian family.
When we arrived at the first family “barbeque” on a mountainside near UB, I noticed that the thirty-odd family members, most of whom were children and teenagers, all knew what to do without anyone giving directions. They understood their roles:
- The younger children began gathering sticks and branches for the fire.
- The older teenagers and men began making the fire and set up the camp.
- The younger girls and women began unloading the vehicles and preparing the food.
- The older women arranged and prepared the meat (which would be boiled in a large pot among hot rocks, potatoes, and carrots)–kind of a large, outdoor pressure cooker.
After the basic food preparations, the children played games and adults sat on blankets and talked among themselves (I was the only person there who spoke English as a first language–and few spoke it at all). Teenagers constantly helped the younger kids, and all the children wanted to hold the babies and take them everywhere.
It was a beautiful display of the love of family and children.
At one point the entire clan gathered around a one-year old boy (who had never had a haircut), and the men in the family took turns cutting a lock of hair (Mongol tradition–non-religious), blessing the child and giving him money. Once the child saw that each hair trim was bringing him some dough, he gladly went around to all the men and held out his head and his basket!
After this wonderful celebration of the first haircut, they asked me to pray a blessing over the young boy. All thirty participated with enthusiasm.
After the meal was cooked, I was amazed at how everyone knew their roles in serving and eating the meal. The younger girls served the food, the boys the drinks, the older women prepared the metal plates, the oldest in the group (including me) were honored with canvas chairs to sit on–and everyone enjoyed each other’s presence for hours–passing the babies and younger kids from lap to lap.
The Mongol families not only seemed to love each other deeply–they knew their roles in the family structure. It was a magnificent relational symphony to watch.
After three days of enjoying this interaction, twice near Ulaanbaatar and once in the northern countryside, I was smitten with the beauty of Mongol families living up to their God-given design:
1. The men did the hard, dirty work and protected and cherished the women.
2. The women used their grace and skill in cooking and providing for the their families with an amazing flair for hospitality and encouragement.
3. Teenagers respected the adults and served in their appropriate roles–the boys knowing their jobs and the girls flourishing in theirs.
4. All of them loved and doted over the little ones. Children were their greatest gift.
5. Nobody needed to be told what to do. For generations, first from a Buddhist background and now growing into a Bible-centered one, they clearly understood the difference between male and female, older and younger, the importance of teamwork, and the gift of new life.
It brings great sadness to my heart when I ponder that the Western World once knew these same basics of family and is foolishly throwing it away:
- We’ve changed the 5000 definition of marriage and are lost in gender confusion.
- We kill a million babies a year, and prefer pets to newborn lives.
- Our teenagers prefer machines to younger brothers and sisters.
- We don’t understand God-given roles and responsibilities and instead just demand rights.
We may be the most powerful civilization in history, but right now we’re also the most foolish.
The loss of family cohesion has happened in our lifetime. We’re listening to the satanic voice, following its lead and losing the power and beauty of family.
Let’s learn from the Mongols.
And let’s work hard for a revival of healthy families in every corner of God’s world.