June 13, 2023
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Well, in the summer it's nice to think about winter Olympics. Well, you know what? I'm not like most people who watch the Olympics. You know, like the winter Olympics, the women's Olympic figure skating? Well, a lot of people just enjoy the grace of the "twizzles" and the "triple lutzes" (whatever those are). Not me. No, I love the stories. I'm a story guy. So I'm sitting there mulling the stories of those skaters. And thinking, "We've got something to learn from her."
It happened. I remember one time, when Italy's finalist, Carolina Kostner skated her long program. It was in the Sochi Olympics. Before she began, they showed her disastrous skate in Vancouver four years ago. She left the ice with her face buried in her hands. It was sad. I mean, in her own words, "It was breaking my heart." And that was going to be the end of her skating career. She didn't want to go through this again. But she did. And on the ice in Sochi, she skated a nearly flawless program and captured Olympic bronze.
Look, I don't ice skate. But I know what it is to fall and come back again.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Coming Back From Falling."
I've set personal goals and I've blown it - losing weight, getting to a better place financially, conquering a personal weakness. And like all of us who have tried and failed, I know the temptation to forget it and just say, "I'm not going to get on the ice" again. But then I considered these Olympic lessons that can turn a sad chapter into a comeback victory. Number one, when you go down, don't stay down. The Bible says in Proverbs 24:16, "A righteous man falls seven times, and he rises again."
I've watched three children and now our grandchildren learn to walk. They all have the same M.O. Try to walk? Fall down. The fallen baby, of course, has two choices. One, "That's it. I tried my best. I failed. I tried to walk. I can't do it. I give up." Well, that didn't happen! Every child got back up and started walking again.
I've decided that the only people who haven't fallen are people who never tried to walk. I watched an Olympic skater whose falls were seen by millions. Who was devastated by the scope of her failure, but she came back with the greatest victory of her life because she didn't stay down.
Oh, here's the other lesson: Do it for the joy, not for the result. That's actually what Carolina Kostner's mother told her after the debacle in Vancouver. That's good advice. Stop thinking about how you'll perform. In her words, "I had to skate for the passion and the pleasure." And that changed everything.
Way back in the 2002 Olympics, U.S. skater Sarah Hughes surprised everyone - including herself. She went into the finals in fourth place; she didn't have much to lose. So, as the top three contenders competed, you could feel the tension. Every jump. Every landing. Each precision movement potentially could mean victory or defeat. Then Sarah skated. She was just fun to watch, because she was clearly having fun. Skating with reckless abandon. And that freedom liberated her to give the best performance of her life; a gold medal performance.
You know, as we look back on our life and we think of the places where we blew it or we failed, especially those we love, I begin to turn to the pages of God's Word to find hope for our falls. And I find it in Micah 7:8 that says, "Do not gloat over me my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light."
You know how that could happen? Because it says later in the chapter, "Who is a God like you who pardons sins, forgives the transgressions?" And then it says, "You hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." To know that every mistake, every fall, every wrong thing, every hurting thing I've ever done has been erased because God's Son died for it on a cross. That is the ultimate freedom for a new beginning.
This might be your day for that new beginning. I'd love to help you get started with Jesus. That's why our website's there - ANewStory.com. Check it out.
I saw one skater come back with Olympic redemption, because she knew that coming back was getting back up, no matter how ugly the fall. So in a way, you win when you just put your skates back on.