The Finest Hour

I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline... I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious.

- Vince Lombardi

The Workout Diary

For my birthday this year my wife purchased me a week with a personal trainer at the local health club. Though still in great shape from when I was on the varsity chess team in high school, I decided it was a good idea to go ahead and try it. I called and made reservations with someone named Tanya, who said she is a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and athletic clothing model. My wife seemed very pleased with how enthusiastic I was to get started.

Day 1.
They suggest I keep this "exercise diary" to chart my progress this week. Started the morning at 6:00 AM. Tough to get up, but worth it when I arrived at the health club and Tanya was waiting for me. She's something of a goddess, with blond hair and a dazzling white smile. She showed me the machines and took my pulse after five minutes on the treadmill. She seemed a little alarmed that it was so high, but I think just standing next to her in that outfit of hers added about ten points. Enjoyed watching the aerobics class. Tanya was very encouraging as I did my sit ups, though my gut was already aching a little from holding it in the whole time I was talking to her. This is going to be GREAT.

Day 2.
Took a whole pot of coffee to get me out the door, but I made it. Tanya had me lie on my back and push this heavy iron bar up into the air. Then she put weights on it, for heaven's sake! Legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made it the full mile. Her smile made it all worth it. Muscles feel GREAT.

Day 3.
The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the tooth brush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I am certain that I have developed a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was okay as long as I didn't try to steer. I parked on top of a Volkswagen. Tanya was a little impatient with me and said my screaming was bothering the other club members. The treadmill hurt my chest so I did the stair monster. Why would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by the invention of elevators? Tanya told me regular exercise would make me live longer. I can't imagine anything worse.

Day 4.
Tanya was waiting for me with her vampire teeth in a full snarl. I can't help it if I was half an hour late, it took me that long just to tie my shoes. She wanted me to lift dumbbells. Not a chance, Tanya. The word "dumb" must be in there for a reason. I hid in the men's room until she sent Lars looking for me. As punishment she made me try the rowing machine. It sank.

Day 5.
I hate Tanya more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. If there was any part of my body not in extreme pain I would hit her with it. She thought it would be a good idea to work on my triceps. Well I have news for you Tanya I don't have triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor don't hand me any barbells. I refuse to accept responsibility for the damage, YOU went to sadist school, YOU are to blame. The treadmill flung me back into a science teacher, which hurt like crazy. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like a music teacher, or social studies?

Day 6.
Got Tanya's message on my answering machine, wondering where I am. I lacked the strength to use the TV remote so I watched eleven straight hours of the weather channel.

Day 7.
Well, that's the week. Thank God that's over. Maybe next time my wife will give me something a little more fun, like free teeth drilling at the dentist's.

The Finest Hour

I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline...I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious

- Vince Lombardi

Lance Armstrong's Slide into Self-Deception

In 2001, Lance Armstrong made an anti-doping commercial for Nike in which he strongly disavowed using illegal drugs. In the commercial, Armstrong boldly states, "This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my [butt] six hours a day. What are you on?"
In 2006, during sworn testimony in a dispute over his $5 million bonus, Armstrong said he wouldn't take drugs because he had too much to lose. "(The) faith of all the cancer survivors around the world. Everything I do off the bike would go away, too …. It's not about money for me …. It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years. So all of that would be erased." In October 2012, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tours de France victories and permanently banned from cycling and any World Anti-Doping Agency sanctioned events. Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, claimed that Armstrong's USPS team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." Tygart also said, "The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage …." It was a doping program "organised by individuals who thought they were above the rules."

sources: YouTube, "Lance Armstrong Nike Commercial (2001)," last accessed 9 October 2014; Sports Illustrated, "USADA to ban Armstrong for life" (24 August 2012)

NFL Replacement Refs Show Need for The Judge

For the first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season, replacement referees took the place on the playing field of the regular refs. The team owners had locked out the regular refs because they could not agree on a new contract. The consequence of using college referees to judge pro games was predictable. The replacement refs missed calls, took too long to make the right calls, called too many fouls, and in the process made coaches, players, and fans furious.
The anger came to a head in the third week of the season. An angry Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, grabbed one of the replacement refs and was fined $50,000 by the league. And on Monday Night Football the game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks was decided by a call on the last play of the game that was so clearly wrong the whole country was talking about it the next day. The media pointed out that because of the missed call, $150m changed hands in Las Vegas.
Confidence in the credibility of the game had been marred. Players didn't know what to expect on the field and worried about injuries. Newspapers routinely used the word "outrage" to describe the reaction from millions of fans. ESPN declared, "Let's cut to the chase—the replacement officials have lost control of the game." Even an NPR (National Public Radio) blog chimed in: "It's the talk of the nation today as fans beg for the league and its regular officials to settle their differences so that the 'real' refs can come back."
All because the rules of NFL football were not being correctly applied by the judges on the field. Lots of people care about football, and as a result they care about having judges doing their job correctly on the field.
Apparently, despite decades of ethical relativism, we still long for justice and fairness—even in pro football. There is right and wrong, and the referee's job is to assure that right prevails. If we care that much about judges in sports, giving order to our games, how much more should we realise the importance of having a supreme Judge who makes the correct call on the actions of people in this world. God has given his law to bring order to relationships, to business, to society. Without his moral law, and his judgments that uphold it, life is chaos, and everyone is miserable.

Gregg Easterbrook, "Losing control is refs' big blunder," ESPN Playbook (25 September 2012);
Mark Memmott, "Bring Back the Real NFL Refs!" The Two-Way, NPR's News Blog (25 September 2012)

A Marathon... or a Sprint?

Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.

- Michael Johnson

Failure

I have always felt that although someone may defeat me and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it

- Hank Aaron (baseballer)

Reserve Player Shared in Michael Jordan's Glory

We do not simply want to see glory; we want to be a part of it. When we lived in Chicago, a friend of ours regularly gave us Bulls tickets. Every year I would take my son, Johnny, to a game. The seats were located alongside the tunnel at the United Center, so when the Bulls ran out on to the floor, when Michael Jordan would run through the tunnel, everybody nearby wanted to give him a high five. They wanted to share his glory.
We all want to touch glory. We want to connect with it. We want to be a part of it, even though we know we are not worthy.
The Bulls had a reserve player named Stacey King. During the 1990 season King only started six games and averaged 15 minutes per game. But one night, during an overtime game against Cleveland, he contributed to an important victory. He said it would always be the greatest memory of his life: the night he and Michael Jordan scored a combined total of 70 points in a NBA playoff game. Michael Jordan scored his career-high 69 points, but King shared in the glory.

John Ortberg, from the sermon "For the Glory of God Alone"

Improving...

You should practice with a purpose. Personally, it would really frustrate me to practice for three or four hours in the morning, walk away, and two hours later say to myself, "Gee, I wish I had worked a little harder on this or that." It's the quality of the time you spend practicing that counts, not the length of time

- Jimmy Connors

Attitude

I play to win even when common sense should tell me that I no longer have a chance. Even when I have been playing at my worst, or when all the breaks have been going against me, I approach each new day, each new hole, as a glorious opportunity to get going again.

- Arnold Palmer

Bjorn Borg

My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories

- Bjorn Borg

U.S. Olympian Is Saving Sex until Marriage

Lolo Jones is an Olympic track and field star gunning for gold at the London Games this summer. But you know what's really hard for Jones? Keeping her virginity intact for her future husband, whoever he may be.
On HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Jones talked about her struggles:
It's just something, a gift that I want to give to my husband. But please understand this journey has been hard. If there are virgins out there, I just want to let them know, the hardest thing I've ever done in my life—harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college—has been to stay a virgin before marriage. Jones adds, "I've been tempted. I've had guys tell me, they're like, 'Hey you know if you have sex it will help you run faster.'" She joked that her response has been: "If you marry me, then yeah."

source unknown

NFL Star Junior Seau Searched for Peace

Junior Seau was well-known as a passionate, fist-pumping, emotional leader and superstar for the NFL's San Diego Chargers. In his 13-year pro football career, Seau made the Pro Bowl 12 times. He was also selected to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team. Sadly, on May 2, 2012, at the age of 43, Seau took his own life.
Seau's death in northern San Diego County stunned the community who adored him for his service and outgoing personality. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, his former teammate and friend, Rodney Harrison, explains that in Seau's last days he was desperately searching for peace. Harrison said:
He would tell me that the only time he truly felt at peace was when he was with his children or in the surf. He would say, "When I'm on those waves, it's the greatest feeling. I have no worries, no stress, no problems. I just forget about everything." Junior was always searching for peace.

Jim Trotter, "Why?" Sports Illustrated (14 May 2012)

An Umpire Claims, "I Wrote the Rulebook"

A number of years ago, when I was playing in a friendly men's softball game, the umpire made a call that incensed our coach. My coach didn't agree with the ump's interpretation of a specific league rule. The game stopped, and a heated discussion ensued. Finally, the ump sighed as he pulled a rulebook from his back pocket and proceeded to read page 27, paragraph 3b, section 1.
"As you can clearly see," he concluded, "this rule means that my call must stand." Unconvinced, my coach yelled, "But you're not interpreting that rule correctly." To which the ump replied, "Uh, excuse me, I think I should know: I wrote the rulebook." After an awkward silence, my coach walked back to the bench, shaking his head and pointing to the ref as he told us, "Get ahold of that guy. He wrote the rulebook!"
Throughout his ministry, Jesus didn't just affirm and endorse the words of Scripture; he talked and acted like he had authoured the Scriptures. He lived with the authority of the One who wrote the "rulebook."

Matt Woodley, The Gospel of Matthew: God With Us (InterVarsity Press, 2011), pp. 68-69

This Athlete Helps Others Succeed

Most people haven't heard of the pro football running back named Tony Richardson. That's because his primary role involves helping other running backs succeed: he blocks so they can run. Over the span of seventeen pro football seasons, teams have often paired Richardson with some of the best backs in pro football. In 2001 he was slated to be the main running back, but instead he went to his teammate Priest Holmes and told him, "It's time for me to step out of the way. You need to be getting the ball. And I'm going to do everything I can to help you." Holmes went on to lead the league in rushing, but Richardson never grew envious or resentful. As Holmes would report, "He used to call me up and say, "I just saw you on SportsCenter! He was happier for me than I was for myself."
All of the running backs that Richardson helped succeed contend that his influence went beyond blocking for them. He would constantly talk to them through the game, advising, pushing, encouraging, and inspiring them. In a recent interview, Tony Richardson said, "I can't explain it, but it just means more to me to help someone else achieve glory. There's something about it that feels right to me."

Joe Posnanski, "Made to Last," Sports Illustrated (August 23, 2010), pp. 49-51

How the Bible Differs from a Golf Yardage Book

Have you ever watched professional golfers and been awed by their ability to land a shot from two hundred yards away just a few yards from the hole? You wonder how they can judge the distance to the hole with such precision. Do they have an internal GPS system that enables them to guess the distances on the course with uncanny accuracy?
Not really. What they have is a yardage book. A yardage book is a map of each hole on the course that gives distances from various landmarks on the hole to the green. Decades ago Arnold Palmer and his caddy began drawing rough yardage charts with little pictures of trees, fairways, greens, sand traps and such of the various holes on all the courses they played. Jack Nicklaus was the pro who really made yardage books popular. Today along with the maps many pro golfers will keep what essentially is a personal journal of how they have played each hole of the course, what clubs they have used from various distances, what the wind was doing, and so on, and what happened to their shots.
Golfers swear by their yardage books. Zach Johnson, winner of the 2010 Colonial, says, "I feel naked without it out there. It's my golf bible."
Steve Marino says, "You see what you did in the past, you make sure you have the right number and then trust all of it, because the room for error is nil."
Scott Vail, caddie for Brandt Snedeker, says, "There are huge ramifications if you are just even 1 yard off."
One former caddie, George Lucas, has made a business out of driving the country and charting distances of some 1,000 golf courses and publishing his data in a book that is now available to the public.
Wouldn't it be nice to have yardage books for the tough decisions we make in life? Should I date this person or not? Should I go to this or that school? Should we buy this house? In our technological age, we want specifics. We want everything mapped out. We want to remove all the uncertainties from life. We want to be able to use our past experiences to predict exactly what will happen in the future. But God hasn't chosen to work with us in that way. He has given us an essential book of guidance that we can't do without, but we still have to use judgment in how to apply what it teaches. Most important, we need to be walking with God in prayer and trust.

Steve DiMeglio, "Before ball, they hit book," USA Today (1 June 2010)

What Do You Do When Everyone Is Cheating?

In their book The Baseball Codes, authors Jason Turbow and Michael Duca share a story from the world of baseball that shows how widely-accepted cheating has become in America's favourite pastime. They write:

[One day in 1987], New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was watching his team play the California Angels on television, and was shocked when the camera zoomed in to show close-ups of what appeared to be a small bandage on the palm of the left hand of Angels pitcher Don Sutton. The Yankees television broadcasters brought it up whenever the pitcher appeared to grind the ball into his palm between pitches. It was, they said, probably why Sutton's pitches possessed such extraordinary movement that day. He was in all likelihood scuffing the baseball.

Outraged, Steinbrenner called the visitors' dugout at Anaheim Stadium and lit into [the Yankees' manager at the time], Lou Piniella. Was he aware, asked the owner, that Sutton was cheating? "Our television announcers are aware of it," yelled Steinbrenner. "I'm sure the Angels are aware of it. You're probably the only guy there who doesn't know it. Now, I want you to go out there and make the umpires check Don Sutton!"

This wasn't exactly breaking news about Sutton. He had been thrown out of a game in 1978 for scuffing. By 1987, he was among the most discussed ball-doctors in the game.

"George," Piniella responded, "do you know who taught him how to cheat?" Steinbrenner confessed that he did not. "The guy who taught Don Sutton everything he knows about cheating is the guy pitching for us tonight," Piniella said. "Do you want me to go out there and get Tommy John thrown out, too?"

So what do we do when it seems like everyone else is cheating? And not just in baseball. Do we we give up and give in, joining the ranks in doing whatever it takes to get ahead? Or do we trust God, take a stand for honesty, and do what's right even if it costs us?

source unknown

Kids Playing Mud Football Realise They're Playing in Sewage

In his book Glorious Mess, Mike Howerton tells the following story about a childhood experience playing "mud football." After a huge downpour, he and his neighbourhood buddies found a gully filled with two inches of standing water. Howerton describes what happened next:

We had a blast. Every tackle would send you sliding for yards and yards. The ball was like a greased pig, which meant tons of fumbles and gang tackles and laughter.

I remember tackling one of [my friends] and watching him skim across the surface of the water for something like four miles and thinking, "I might be in heaven." When he got up, I noticed something stuck on his shoulder. I peered closer, wondering, "What is that?" Now, there was a huge, concrete sewage runoff drain right next to the gully. And apparently during heavy rains, all sorts of things got backed up, and I don't know if the apartment complex immediately next to the school burst a pipe or what, but I do know we didn't really pay attention to the flotsam in the gully until I noticed that something on Craig's shoulder. I peered closer and suddenly realised it was a soaking piece of toilet paper. In that same instant I realised the smell surrounding me was a bit more pungent than a typical mud football game ought to smell. I yelled out, "We're playing in POOP WATER!" and we bolted for home as fast as we could.

Talk about an instant of mental transformation …. Sometimes in life we need our thinking transformed. Sometimes we think we're having fun until we realise we're rolling around in sewage.

Mike Howerton, Glorious Mess (Baker, 2012), pp. 101-102

An Umpire Claims, "I Wrote the Rulebook"

A number of years ago, when I was playing in a friendly men's softball game, the umpire made a call that incensed our coach. My coach didn't agree with the ump's interpretation of a specific league rule. The game stopped, and a heated discussion ensued. Finally, the ump sighed as he pulled a rulebook from his back pocket and proceeded to read page 27, paragraph 3b, section 1.

"As you can clearly see," he concluded, "this rule means that my call must stand." Unconvinced, my coach yelled, "But you're not interpreting that rule correctly." To which the ump replied, "Uh, excuse me, I think I should know: I wrote the rulebook." After an awkward silence, my coach walked back to the bench, shaking his head and pointing to the ref as he told us, "Get ahold of that guy. He wrote the rulebook!"

Throughout his ministry, Jesus didn't just affirm and endorse the words of Scripture; he talked and acted like he had authored the Scriptures. He lived with the authority of the One who wrote the "rulebook."

Matt Woodley, The Gospel of Matthew: God With Us (InterVarsity Press, 2011), pp. 68-69

Mowing His Front Lawn

One day, shortly after joining the PGA tour in 1965, Lee Trevino, a professional golfer and married , was at his home in Dallas, Texas mowing his front lawn, as he always did.
A lady driving by in a big, shiny Cadillac stopped in front of his house, lowered the window and asked, “Excuse me, do you speak English”?
Lee responded, “Yes Ma’am, I do”.
The lady then asked, “What do you charge to do yard work?”.
Lee said, “Well, the lady in this house lets me sleep with her” The lady hurriedly put the car into gear and sped off.

(good joke told about many people!)