Throngs of people all over the world are entralled with the Olympics. The ancient Greeks sure had a great idea in starting it all. But I have to confess that every four years when the games roll around, I am just not interested in watching much of it. I love sports and I like to watch what portions of the competition I happen to catch, but it just isn't high on the list of my priorities. I don't really know why. That's just the way it is.
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Speaking of the Olympics, one really has to admire all the amateur athletes that compete. They work so hard for so many years and it all comes down to this competition once in four years. These Olympians remind us of the importance of discipline and hard work in running the race of life. Success cannot be achieved without it.
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And speaking of such discipline and hard work, how about Gabby Douglas? She is the first African American woman to win the gold in the all-around competition in gymnastics. How rightfully proud her family must be. She is an inspiration to all of us.
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And speaking of Gabby Douglas, what's up with the nonsense about people critiquing her hair? She didn't compete in the all-around cosmetology competition. It's amazing to me how we human beings will focus on the irrelevant in order to hide the significant. One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie "Gettysburg." We human beings have "a knack for trivializing the momentous and complicating the obvious." I don't know of anyone who will be fondly remembered for her or his hair style, but Gabby Douglas will forever be in the Olympic records. Good for her!
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And speaking of Gabby Douglas and her hair, I think one of the problems with an affluent society, where wants are commonly seen as needs, is that such a society often lacks a great adventure. And because of that we get focused on the irrelevant minutiae while neglecting the necessary. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for neglecting the weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). I think the church in America has become so focused on the trivial that it has lost the wonderful adventure which is its singular reason for existing-- making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
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And in light of that thought, we Christians in America need to ponder the reality that while we were arguing over eating chicken sandwiches this past week, there were people in many parts of the world who were, at the very same time, hoping only for a morsel of daily bread.
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I need to quit connecting these random thoughts because they are not supposed to be necessarily connected.
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We just returned from two weeks vacation. We spent our second week in Nashville visiting friends and just enjoying the area. Nashville and its surroundings are great. If you have never been there you should plan on going. You won't be disapointed.
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This post highlights ten futuristic technologies that will never exist, including lightsabers and Star Trek-like matter transporters. I must say that this is rather disappointing. However, I suppose nothing should ever be completely excluded from reality.
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Interesting and Somewhat Useless Trivia: Remember the old Daniel Boone TV show of the 60s, starring Fess Parker? In the show, Boone wore a coonskin cap. Well, the real Dan'l did not wear such a hat. In fact, Daniel's son, Nathan told an interviewer that his father despised coonskin caps. This link explains why.
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This Week in History: On July 29, 1794, a group of African American Christians in Philadelphia founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church after enduring discrimination in the local Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation first met in a blacksmith shop. Their leader was Richard Allen, a former slave, who was ordained the first African American pastor in 1799.
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