My friend worked with young people on a Southwest Indian reservation for fourteen years. As part of his ministry, he'd get them out of the rez world they knew and take them to a youth camp I spoke for in the Rockies. It was my first real contact with Native young people - the seed of what would become our groundbreaking On Eagles' Wings ministry. My friend told me that those young people were so touched by God at the camp that they would do something Native kids just don't do. They would sing and even compose Jesus-songs all the way home until they got to the border of the reservation. He said the Jesus-songs stopped at the border of home.
Our sons used to come home from high school football practice hurting in places that they didn't even know they had places. Their coach worked his teams hard, and even in the August heat. But he built champions! He told them he was building a "fourth quarter team" - the kind of team who is still strong in the last quarter when other teams would be fading. You could hear it on the sidelines when it was clear that the fourth quarter was going to decide the game, "The fourth quarter is ours!"
The season's changing again. Summer's a memory, fall's here, and winter's not far off. I'm a four seasons kind of guy; I love them all. Of course, the season changing means we have to change, too - like our clothes, our clocks, our schedule, and our recreation. Each season has its unique beauty and its opportunities. And each season has its particular hazards and adjustments. But we need them all!
Cheerleaders! What would football be without them? Even if they sometimes don’t know which team has the ball, you know? But there’s one thing you can count on. No matter what happens on the field, you can count on the cheerleaders to always be on your side.
Our kids used to love to go to the circus. Now they take their kids to the circus. One of the much-hyped highlights of the circus is those death-defying acrobats on the trapezes above the center ring. It's breathtaking to watch them make that daring leap into space and onto the next trapeze. I imagine it's fine as long as you're hanging onto that first trapeze, and when you've grabbed that next trapeze. What's scary? That would be the time between trapezes.
