Coming Down from the Mountain by Connie Inglis

  http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/parks/olympus-greece/

Well, the Olympics are over, and with it all the hype and attention surrounding individual athletes. Thus I thought it only fitting to consider what it’s like to come down from those mountaintop experiences both as writers and as Jesus-followers.

I must admit, I’m not an Olympian. The closest thing I ever came to athletic success was in college. I played on the women’s hockey team and in our final tournament of the year, I scored the overtime goal to win the trophy! I was suddenly trounced upon by a team of girls, screaming and shouting. I still call that goal one of my “claim to fame” moments. I guess it’s my “Olympic” moment. But then on Monday it was back to classes and exams and the daily routine.

 

For a true Olympian, the distance between the high of the Olympics and the quotidian days following can be extreme. Rick Madonick of The Toronto Star refers to it as, “Post Olympic Stress Disorder.”

https://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics/2012/08/18/after_the_games_many_athletes_experience_a_kind_post_olympic_stress_disorder.html

There are some excellent thoughts in this article that can also pertain to us in our writing  journey and our faith journey.

If you’ve ever had anything published, I’m sure you remember that moment when you receive your first copy in the mail as a medal-winning moment. You touch the cover, you flip it around in your hands, you breathe in that smell of new paper, new print. You are ecstatic and your close friends and family are excited for you. That lasts for about a week, maybe more, but then you suddenly find yourself kicked over the edge of a high precipice to hit the hard ground below…and nothing. No more interest, no sales, no following. And your writing hits a slump. How do you keep going in the dark valley?

Our faith can be the same. We go to a Christian conference, a retreat, or we just experience an amazing morning of God’s presence on Sunday morning. We feel SO close to God, we hear His voice, we sense His guidance in our lives. Then Monday morning hits: you had a sleepless night because one of the kids vomited all night and now you’re yelling at all the kids, you go to start the car but it won’t turn over because someone forgot to plug it in and it’s 30 below, your computer has decided to crash while you were sleeping and you forgot to back it up, you get “the phone call” that someone close has unexpectedly passed away. Now what??!!! The mountain has been flattened by the mundane issues of life and God seems far away. 

Jesus, the ultimate medal winner, hears our "now what"s and understands. He understands because He Himself CHOSE to come down from Mount Zion to live in the valley of humanity. He chose to walk in the valley that He knew would lead to His death, FOR US! (Philippians 2) He became a servant, washing dirty, dusty feet as an example to us and then He told us to follow His example (John 13:15) of servanthood. 

There is another mountain story found in Matthew 17. Jesus takes three of his disciples up to a mountain for a mountaintop experience. They see Jesus shining brilliantly, a white light, and God proclaims Jesus' Sonship from heaven. The disciples are in awe. Peter wants to immediately build shelters but Jesus tells them to keep silent--and they quietly walk down from the mountain and into the valley of the enemy. Jesus is immediately confronted by a demon-possessed boy--He is back in the valley, healing, helping, serving. He heals the boy but not without confronting the disciples' lack of faith. And I don't think it coincidence that Jesus includes a mountain when referencing faith i.e. having enough faith to move a mountain from here to there (vs. 20). Jesus is telling us that even in the valley, we can move mountains.

But let me go back to the transfiguration. Jesus speaks two phrases to the disciples who are on their faces, frozen in fear--two phrases that we need to remember as we walk through life: "Get up." and "Don't be afraid." Jesus is encouraging us to keep moving and not give up. Psalm 37:24 says, "though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand." Jesus is also encouraging us to cast off fear. Joshua 1:9 says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Mountaintop experiences matter. We need them to keep going through the humdrum like a memorial of strength. But God doesn’t call us to go from mountaintop to mountaintop. He calls us to persevere in the valley of the everyday, to walk with Him along the rocky, pot-holed road of life because that’s where true grace happens and that’s where medals are won or lost. And He sent His Son Jesus to be our true example of what that looks like. 

Olympians get very few minutes of glory compared to the days, months and years of training. So it is in our writing—God asks us to write faithfully and consistently, even if it’s just 100 words at a time. And so it is in our faith—God asks us to press on faithfully and consistently, even if it’s just a few steps at a time. 

What is truly beautiful and revitalizing in all of it, is that God is always with us. We can look up at the mountains from the valley and know God's splendor. But God's splendor is also with us in the valley in the form of His Spirit and through His Son Jesus. May we not forget that.  

An 'A' for Effort by Susan Barclay

I have to admit, I’m not a big sports fan and the only Olympic sport that really interests me is figure skating, which is not part of the summer Olympics. This year, though, I will take an interest in the Paralympic swimming competition, since a young man who is part of our church family will be participating. Go, Alec, go!

One thing I know about Olympic-level athletes is that they train hard and train often. Every day they work at their sport for hours, trying to better themselves, better their time, building strength and endurance so that ultimately they might beat their competitors and win the prize. They don’t allow excuses to get in their way – they make time and manage it well, pushing themselves to do and be their best, trying to achieve the most that they can.

This is how I should be as a writer – spending hours daily honing my craft through practice; reading as much as I can the work of the best writers; learning from the pros; taking courses; never settling for my second best or mediocrity. If my goal is publication, and it is, I also need to learn the art of successful submitting; how to work with agents, editors and publishers; how to accept and avoid rejection; how to win the prize of a ‘yes.’

This is how I should also be as a woman of faith – spending hours in God’s Word and in prayer, drawing closer to Him and becoming more like Him every day. Not only should I be enjoying His grace and the gifts of His love and mercy, but I should be extending these to others and exalting His name so it might be made great in all the nations. In fact, my life as a writer and my life as a Christ-follower ought to be inextricably connected.

May I live as Paul exhorted in 1 Corinthians 9:24 (NLT): Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!  
_________________

Visit my website, www.susanbarclay.wordpress.com
for more about me and my writing 

What's Next After The Olympics by Bob Jones

Eight days have passed since the closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games. What happens to the athletes after they return home? What about those who didn’t win a medal or were injured or who now plan to retire? Is there life after the Olympics?

Steven Portenga, director of sport psychology services at the University of Denver says, "It's not uncommon for a lot of Olympic athletes to come back and go through depression for a little while, because they don't know what's next.”

My two sons competed in football – one for eighteen years and one for seventeen. I was their coach for much of their careers and their biggest fan at all of their games. When they played their final down of University football we faced our "what's next" moment.

I think I had a harder time after their final game than they did. Many of my August to November Saturdays, from 2001 to 2009, were pleasantly occupied with traveling to Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver to see them play. Was there life after football…for me?

I’ve missed coaching. It took a couple of years before I wouldn’t get the itch come August to go to a pre-season High School practice just to be around the athletes. One day I’ll put my coaches hat back on and enjoy the gridiron sidelines again.

Thinking about life after the Olympics or football brought me to the realization that there is no “life after writing.” Writing is a highly engaging, highly intense and highly rewarding activity that is seemingly endless. Writing is a marathon rather than a sprint.

Writers need never retire. As long as a writer can hold a pen or type on a keyboard or dictate their thoughts, they can stay “in the game” as long as they want.

That’s not to say that writers won’t experience a season in their life when they feel like giving up on writing.  Discouragement, dry spells, distractions or rejection letters from publishers can make the writing life a grind.

Ryan Hall, an American Olympic marathoner, went through a tough two-year period where he wasn't performing well on the track or in the classroom at Stanford. Depressed, he left for a quarter and went home, unsure that he would return. But his depression only worsened.

He went back to school and kept pushing through. Hall said that it's important for athletes to “give themselves time to work through” the hard times.

That’s good advice for Olympians and writers.

Push through! Write on!

Robert (Bob) W. Jones is a recovering perfectionist, who collects Coca-Cola memorabilia and drinks Iced Tea. His office walls are adorned with his sons’ framed football jerseys, and his library shelves, with soul food. He writes to inspire people to be real, grow an authentic faith in Jesus, enjoy healthy relationships and discover their life purpose.

Follow Bob on:

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Bigger than the Olympics by Marnie Pohlmann

The 2016 Olympics were on the television hanging in a corner of the waiting room outside the Intensive Care Unit. My son and his family had gone in to see my husband, Wally, so my daughter and I sat silently watching life go on in the outside world.

I don’t remember what Olympic event pieces we caught over those long days at the hospital, but I do remember snapshots of faces. Athletes straining and concentrating. Teams exhausted yet jubilant in victory. Competitors dejected but determined to finish.

One camera shot, in particular, caught my attention. The focus was on the winning runner, but in the background came a solitary participant, the last to cross the finish line. His dreams may have been big, but he seemed content just to have been in the race and to have finished. In his own country he was the best, so he had earned his spot in the Olympic games. He was not upset; he may have raced not expecting to win, but he still wanted to do his best and he was satisfied.

 “Someone has to lose,” my Mom would say when teaching children to be gracious winners and even more gracious losers. As hard as I may try, or practice, or wish for an outcome that would be in my favour, that does not always happen. If there is to be a winner, then there must also be a loser.

Competition seems to be part of our human nature. Young children will play together, but their play will include competition, whether wrestling over a toy or finding out who can scream loudest. Try as we might to convince children to cooperate rather than compete, the winners and losers still appear.

When my son was in elementary school, those in the seat of wisdom decided sporting events would no longer have 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd place awards, but everyone would receive ribbons of participation. My son came home from track with his ribbon, and promptly told me who was faster than him, and who he was faster than. Ribbons or not, the competition was clear, and the comparison was natural. Someone won and someone lost.

As Christian writers, we like to think we are perhaps more gracious to one another. We celebrate with those who are rewarded for their hard work with publication. We encourage one another when a rejection letter comes. Maybe we are not in direct competition, but sometimes the discouragement of not being published or of not winning a contest makes us feel like losers. We know we are precious in God’s sight no matter our success, but it would be nice to realize the writing dream that others are living, wouldn’t it? And that is when I hear Mom’s voice again.

“Someone has to lose.”

This is not a voice of accepting failure. This is the voice of contentment, because eternal success does not look the way society tells us earthly success looks. Losing does not make a loser, but it does make one who tries, and that in itself is success.

As a writer, I may never publish a book. I may never have a readership of more than my friends and family. It may seem that every other writer I know is winning, and I am losing. Yet, I am participating. I am writing. I am striving to improve my craft, to write my best for each opportunity. I am sharing my writing in small ways now. So I am successful, a winner.

We certainly felt like winners the day Wally was released from hospital. Many families who gathered in the waiting room, blankly watching the Olympics, did not take their loved one home. We left with a diagnosis of cancer, but we had an answer to Wally’s health issues over the previous months, and we had a treatment plan for the future.

While our life may look like we are straggling in last, we celebrate our blessings. We have the hope of Christ which brings God’s peace and His strength each day to run our race. We see others with more faith than us, and we see others who struggle more than us, and we are satisfied in our place at this time. In life and in Christ.

The Olympics and cancer are huge to the world, but God is bigger! Even when it looks or feels like we are losing, we are winning, because “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

Winning and Losing by Tandy Balson

“I never thought watching a bicycle road race would be interesting,” I said to my husband.  The 136.9 km race was well underway when I sat down to watch this Olympic event.

After a steep climb two riders were clearly in the lead. When they started the descent, one pulled away.  As her lead increased the commentators said she would be hard to beat. With 10.7 km to go, Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands crashed.  She went down hard and didn’t move for quite some time.  I can’t imagine how difficult it was for her competitors to ride past as medics tended to her.

Maria Abbott of the USA moved into first place.  We watched her maintain her lead until the final few kilometers.  A group of three behind slowly decreased the distance between them and passed her in the final meters before the finish line.  She gave it all she had but finished out of the medals by mere seconds.

It wasn’t the front runners who won the medals, but the ones who paced themselves. They held back slightly during the race so they’d have the energy to finish strong. They were also the ones who stayed together and shared emotional support during this grueling exercise.

I realized there was a lesson here for me.  Many times I’ve had a strong start and then faltered before I reached the finish line.  Sometimes I’ve plodded slowly up a steep learning curve. Once I have the required knowledge and am on the descent I try to make up for lost time.  As I speed to the finish line I encounter an unexpected bump and down I go. It may be a stumble that I recover from easily.  Or, it may be a spectacular crash. 

The more time I spend on the ground assessing my disappointment and injured pride, the greater the chance I will admit defeat.  Instead of getting back into the race I question why I ever entered it in the first place.  In effect, I beat myself.

My objective should not be to set goals that I reach in my own strength.  I want to run with endurance the race God has set before me.  Instead of trying to speed ahead, I need to follow the pace he dictates. Sometimes that includes slowing down. Part of my preparation must be quiet time spent with God. That’s where the true training comes from.  I’ve learned he will guide me and place me with others for mutual support. Together we will advance into the writers he wants us to be. This is how I can hope to achieve the prize of bringing glory to him.

I heard a sports commentator say that in order to be winners, athletes have to believe they belong with the best.  That goes for me as well. As a child of God I am already a member of the winning team.

 

Athletic wear doesn't make one an Athlete! by Jocelyn Faire

Most of the Olympics have passed me by, the summer has been busy, this August long weekend I hosted three sisters, a niece and her three children. My niece used my smart TV to play DVDs for her children … and somehow the settings were not returned to my normal.  And I feel not so smart. Aaaagh … I would come in last for the Olympic technology challenge. 

But what an epic adventure of laughter, and bubbles, and parachute men dropped over the balcony, more laughter and great food for our motley crew between my house and the Canmore, Alberta folk festival. And in it all I was reminded of the Olympic sized challenges that my niece and her ten year old daughter face each day of life.

(In the winner's circle!)

Multitudes of prayers had been spoken for Maya prior to her birth, when her parents were informed that their daughter had a rare syndrome, and would be born with numerous life challenging difficulties. She has had at least 40 surgeries, the first one before she was a week old. She has spent months of her life in hospital, and even now the doctors are waiting for her to grow stronger in order for her scoliosis to be corrected. Many of us have wondered if the Psalm 139 verses about being fearfully and wonderfully knit in her mother's womb have missed the mark. And yet according to her Grandmother, Maya is a girl with a special connection to Jesus. When I had the privilege to tuck the three little ones into bed, Maya asked if she could read from her bible. My heart breaks for this girl who is becoming increasingly aware of how different she is than the others. She will never run any competitive races. She has never had a normal bowel movement, as the colostomy bag takes care of that business for her. In the playground while her 4 year old brother ran up and down the boards three times, Maya carefully placed one hand and then a foot down in order to ascend. I cheered heartily as she reached the top. 

We speak of all the hard work and determination that goes into producing an Olympic athlete. We stand in awe giving credit to those who have laboured intensely. I stood in awe of this little girl and her family carving out some sense of normal in a precarious health balance.

What was heart warming was to hear Maya speak to herself in the mirror, while wearing her Epic T-shirt. She would say "I feel epic" over and over, making all of us smile. It's a great thing to see that when we repeat these words, we do become more epic.  Epic is defined as "heroic or grand in scale or character."  As we speak Olympic sized dreams into place, we become more of what we speak.  May we all feel epic, and help those around us to achieve a sense of epic in their own lives.


Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour Romans 12:10(ESV)

Dreams Realized; Dreams Deferred by Sharon Espeseth

What happens when dreams are realized early?


Did you watch Penny Oleksiak's final strokes as she won silver in the 100m Women's Butterfly race? This talented 16-year-old from Toronto says she had come to the 2016 Olympics with modest goals, but she didn't just show up and observe.

Penny became a winner for Canada. Her silver was the second medal clanking around her neck as a journalist interviewed her shortly after her butterfly swim. Young Penny admitted she had tried not to set her hopes too high. Former Olympian swimmers understand how big a win this is for Oleksiak.

While some may wonder how this youthful stardom will affect Penny, Marianne Limpert, a former Olympian silver-medal swimmer, advises, "It's great to win a medal and it's a huge honour. But it doesn't really change anything. . . .  Just keep everything grounded. . . . And just stay who you are."

Another rising star

David of Old Testament times also comes to mind as a young, ruddy-complexioned youth with an olympian spirit. If there had been a slingshot category, he would definitely have won. Instead David, Jesse's eighth and youngest son was chosen by God and anointed by Samuel to be the next King of Israel.

In spite of his love for God, David had his indiscretions. He did, however, go to God for forgiveness and guidance, when he had sinned. David has given us most of the Psalms--beautiful verses that speak to our hearts and teach us how to talk to God.

A Raisin in the Sun

What happens when dreams are deferred?

The opening lines of a poem by Langston Hughes ask,

"What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?"



To read the rest of the poem, see

https://readalittlepoetry.wordpress.com/2011/.../a-dream-deferred-by-langston-hughes...

From this poem, Lorraine Hansberry borrowed A Raisin in the Sun as title for her play about a

struggling black family. With success beyond her dreams Hansberry's play had over 500 performances on Broadway. She became the first black playwright and the youngest person to win a New York Critics' Circle Award. Before her death in 1965 at the age of 34, Lorraine had worked for the betterment and acceptance of blacks in America.

In real life, Lorraine's father could afford to provide for his middle class family. When Lorraine was eight years old, the family moved to a cleaner, brighter, white neighbourhood. Carl Hansberry needed the help of white business colleagues to make the purchase. In the fifties and sixties, residents of a neighbourhood would sign covenants not to sell their homes to blacks. Still the Hansberry's faced court challenges, threats by white mobs, and a brick through their window.

"Mama" in the play wanted to better her family by moving into a white neighbourhood. One critic had written about "a happy ending" to the play, which amused Hansberry, who knew the story ended on an uncertain, unpromising note. The play was, after all, about dreams deferred.

To view the movie, see https://youtu.be/7dBIJqvAjTM

I think of Abraham and Sarah as the ultimate example of dreams deferred. Their dreams and God's promise had definitely been delayed. Sarah bore a child in her old age and Abraham did become the father of the Hebrew people as God had promised. Can you imagine their surprise? Joy? Praise?

What about writing dreams deferred?

Sometimes my writing dreams seem to be deferred. I take responsibility for that, but there often have been reasons. I've found out the hard way that I can't physically or mentally handle everything that lands on my platter. I need to choose more carefully and prayerfully about the choices I take from the banquet of life.

Sometimes it's the words that count and not the word count.

In 2nd Corinthians 12:7-12, Paul talks about his "thorn in the flesh." He had pleaded three times for the Lord to take this thorn, or weakness, away. God answered, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul decided to be boastful about his weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on him.

Dare I, like Paul, boast about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me? Being prone to depression when I overdo things doesn't sound like an olympian spirit, but perhaps it is. "For when I am weak, then I am strong," Paul says. Learning to live by faith and to stay close to God is what makes me stronger. My productivity in writing may rise and fall, but I will persevere. My dreams may be deferred, but not denied. I am not a raisin in the sun.

Journey to Olympia: A Path of Discovery by Karma Pratt

The journey to Olympia is just as much a pilgrimage today as it was in ancient times. The Olympic games as we know them now originated over 2700 years ago, with the first organized games taking place as early as 776 BC*. Athletes from all over Greece traveled to the heart of the Peloponnese in order to compete for the honour of becoming a member of the Olympic elite. Foot races and wrestling matches were common place.

Did you know that, outside the main arena, there were also feats of mental and intellectual strength? The original Olympic games included exercising that muscle of voracious appetite, the brain. Gifted elocutionists presented arguments of logic and reason. Athens has been a hotbed of philosophic debate for millennia. It's not surprising that the Hellenic world valued the sport of engaging one's mind on the same level as exercising one's body. 

In June 2012 we had the great good fortune to be able to travel to Greece. Our stay in Olympia was memorable, although not necessary for the reasons traditionally associated with the Olympics. Ancient Olympia has become a tourist destination, that much is true. It feels... different, though, than what I expected. Located in the center of the Peloponnese, Olympia is unlike many iconic Greek locations in one important way: the city is not located on the seaside.

While other Grecian cities revolve around the ocean, Olympia is situated in the quiet heat, slow breezes and soft eucalyptus leaves of the interior. One benefit to being further inland is that there is not as much humidity. I was thankful for that. The day we toured the original Olympic grounds, the afternoon heat clocked in at 53° Celsius.

53°! Can you imagine competing in that heat? Or even being a spectator? As it was, we walked through the lush grounds of the historic site on a lazy June day. The heat was not stifling first thing in the morning, but still, it gave me the impression that a person could languish here if they succumbed to the temptation to curl up under the leafy green branches of the sweet smelling eucalyptus. Once you drifted away, you would enter into a never ending nap/dream/wake cycle. I imagined the dreams that were dreamed in this place. Hopes of athletes determined to bring honour to their home towns and family name; inspired everyday folk who made the pilgrimage to pay tribute to their roots and cheer for their hometown hero. I was inspired to begin dreaming my own dreams for victory in my life. 

There is a path leading to the main stadium where athletes would have entered immediately before competing in their race. Walking this pathway was a rite of passage. Life size statues of previous Olympian champions lined the foot path, marking the way for competitors. The statues stood as reminders to those who came next: Your race is your own. Strive to accomplish your personal best. Do so with honour and integrity. The Olympic games were as much about accomplishing a moral victory as a physical one.

We had an opportunity to walk through that archway onto the field of competition. We soaked in the history of the place, the energy of countless races fought and won, the celebrations and tributes, the honour awarded to participants. We sat in the shade of the ruins and listened to the stories of the ancients, brought to life by the remnants of memory carved from the earth, the stone. 

My impression of Olympia was one of unending peace  - quite a surprise compared to my expectation. I'm not certain what I expected? A testosterone-fueled, hyper masculine overdrive of competition? The grounds we wandered that day in June were very different. We were on hallowed ground. There was a tangible element of the sacred in every step. I'm certain the events of the past were electrifying beyond compare. The very nature of sporting events has a way of bringing out the competitive edge in everyone. Olympia, however, has left a legacy of honour, integrity and peace in its wake.

Karma Pratt is a faith-driven mom of twins, a communicator, a writer, and an encourager from way back. She offers professional writing and editing services at redraincoatcreations.com. 

Footnote: 

*http://www.cntraveller.com/recommended/amazing-journeys/journey-through-the-peloponnese/page/journey-to-olympia 

Photo Credits: Olympic Arch: http://www.greeka.com/peloponnese/olympia/  

Map: http://www.greeka.com/peloponnese/olympia/olympia-villages/olympia-ancient_olympia.htm