Winter Olympics

“I think Vincent and Elliot would be great at curling!”  My eldest daughter declared.  For some reason, she is really into the Winter Olympics and while four years transpire during which the great sport of curling is not mentioned in our home, February of 2026 brought a deluge of mentions of things like curling, slalom, and speed skating.

“I don’t think so,” Vincent said.  “I am not very good with ice skates on.  I’d fall over pretty fast.”

“Maybe he’d do better at the skeleton,” I suggested.

“Definitely not,” Vincent said.  “80 miles per hour is too fast for me.”

“You don’t wear ice skates for curling,” Anna persisted.  “They just wear some kind of shoe with a slippery sole that lets them slide across the ice.  You’d be fine, Vincent.”

“I don’t think so,” Vincent said in a grumbly sort of voice.

“But you and Elliot are used to sweeping,” Anna said, warming to her subject.  “With all the practice you’ve gotten sweeping at home and at school, you’d be awesome at guiding the stones!  It would be so awesome – Vincent and Elliot Waldron, Gold Medal winners for Curling!”

While curling may not be as scary as skiing down a steep slope 70 miles per hour, it seems as though there is major skill involved with it.  Simply being able to create a dirty pile with a kitchen broom isn’t the same as sliding in front of a stone, moving across the ice and direct it using special broom.  Maybe these athletes are also good at cleaning up after a meal, but I’m guessing the skills don’t actually translate that well.

For some reason, my mind was drawn to a situation that the Apostle Paul and Barnabas experienced on their first missionary journey.  Acts 13 tells us that part way through this journey, John Mark, who was supposed to be helping them left and headed for home.

No one knows why he left.  Maybe he was home sick.  Maybe the challenges of the journey and the threat of persecution were too much for him.  The reason doesn’t really matter, John Mark let them down.

So it was, when Barnabas and Paul were thinking about their next trip, Barnabas suggested bringing John Mark with them again and Paul turned him down. 

“And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.  And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God…”

We know that over time, John Mark developed maturity and towards the end of his life, Paul asked that John Mark would accompany Timothy, to visit him in prison.  Earlier on, John Mark needed someone like Barnabas in his life – a man who would give him opportunity to grow and a second chance to serve.

Most of all, he needed someone who would understand that he wasn’t fully formed, but that he was still developing the skills needed to share the gospel and minister to other’s needs. 

Each of us needs a Barnabas or two in our lives to encourage us and give us opportunities, both to succeed and fail.  More than that, we need to be willing to be a Barnabas for others around us.  Simply expecting that because your brothers can sweep the floor will let them medal in the Winter Olympics is only bound for failure – even if it produces some interesting dinner conversation along the way. 

"I Love My Lips!"

 

“If my lips ever left my mouth,

Packed a bag and headed south,

That'd be too bad, I'd be so sad…”

“Dad, why do we have lips?”  My youngest daughter queried.  She has strange fascinations and this evening; lips were percolating through her grey matter.

“Well, lips help us say certain sounds like ‘P’ and ‘B’ and ‘M.’  It is really hard to say, ‘Mom is probably making bubbles, popcorn, and mustard,’ without using your lips.”

I hoped this was helpful.  I did go to medical school, but I have a feeling I missed ‘lip day’ and so I feel a bit deficient on the subject.

“If my lips said “Adios,

I don't like you, I think you're gross.”

That'd be too bad, I might get mad...”

“Do dogs have lips?”  Elise asked, moving onto a subject that I knew even less about than human lips.

“Of course they do,” I said easily.  “Look at Cosmo over there smiling like anything.  How would he do that without his lips?” 

Cosmo of course was looking as glum as usual.  He maybe as happy as a clam, but he isn’t one for giggling, chortling, or even smiling.

“You’re being silly, Dad,” Elise said.  “Cosmo isn’t smiling at all.  He’s a dog.  Dogs don’t smile.”

“If my lips moved to Duluth

Left a mess and took my tooth.

That'd be too bad, I'd call my Dad…”

“You know, Elise,” I said, trying to move the conversation to more firm footing for me.  “There’s a kind of flower that I heard of called a Two-Lip.”

Elise screwed up her face, thinking about this odd floral name.  “That’s not the way you say that, Dad,” she said at last.  “I think you say it TAU-LIP.  Anyway, it doesn’t have anything to do with lips.  If you eat food, will it make your lips get bigger?”

“I love my lips!”

These are the sort of conversations one has with a six-year-old, who understands that things exist, but is uncertain of the “why” behind them.  While I have studied a lot of different things, I don’t always know the reason why.

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14)

Even if I don’t know the reason why I have lips or why my lips are shaped the way they are, I know for certain that my Heavenly Father created them exactly the way they should be.  I am afraid that these days, many people aren’t satisfied with their lips.  They get injections into them to make them bigger or use special creams that are supposed to make them plumper.

It makes me a bit sad, because God knew what He was doing when He made us.  The important thing is not to meet some unattainable standard of beauty, but rather that our lips smile, sharing with others the joy we feel and that they help us speak praise to the God who knew us before we were born and made us perfectly.

Did I mention that the Polish word for lips, is ‘usta?’

The Bad Old Days

 

 

Lo, one day it came to pass that I did wend my way to a small edifice in the town of Brookneal where I do practice the healing arts for the inhabitants of the County Campbell.  It so happened that a man of great age passed through said doors to have me spy out a cure for the dread malady, Bronchitis.

With great care, I listened to his Account of how his grandchildren had brought Germs into his home from the local institution of learning.  More, how that which he coughed up had changed in colors and how he could remember seeing all hours of the clock through the night due to his Great Coughing.

Further, I listened to his chest with a Scope of Stethe and even ordered a Radiograph to discern if such infection had descended from Bronchitis to Pneumonia.

After all this, I returned to Speak with Him.  “What thou hast,” I declaimed.  “Is the ailment, Bronchitis.  In the Bad Old Days, a doctor would have bled Thee till Thou wast better or in the ground, but I have a New Fangled Invention called an Antibiotic and it is more effective than bleeding and it hurts less To Boot.”

“Canst Thou not give me a Shot?”  Henry asked me.  “For, verily, I remember that the Medics of my youth used to give a Shot and while it hurt muchly, it granted healing Real Quick.”

“It might be that that was so,” I spake, as one doling important information to one greatly deficient.  “But penicillin doeth very little for the Resistant Bugs we see now adays – mostly because doctors over used it in ancient days.”

“Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)

I have found, through my half century of experience that many look fondly on the Good Old Days, as they speak of them.  They were the times when kids didn’t have Smart Phones and most folks didn’t have Air Conditioning and doctors gave penicillin shot for What Ailed You.

Surely, there was much good in Those Days.  And yet, there was evil then, just as there is evil today.  For the heart of man, without God, tends towards darkness and many were the families who suffered as a result.

If I would say that the 1990s are better than these Crazy Days in the 2020s, it is simply that I was younger then and further, that my forgetter has worked over time in dis-remembering the Negatives.  For even then, there were Wars and Rumors of Wars, Famines and Earthquakes, and yeah, even Hurricanes like Andrew and Hugo.

It is best to look forward, glad for those past moments, but attempting to make the Lives Around Us better.  For, the question is not really whether a Shot of Penicillin is worth Thirty Pills of cephalexin, but what is best to make tomorrow night restful and free of coughing and for that, dwelling on the past has little efficacy for improving the future