Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Spending for Gold

-->
I kind of like the Olympics, I don’t watch a lot of them but do enjoy what I watch and enjoy cheering on the home team.

And then I stop and think about how much the Olympics cost.  Montreal finally paid for the 1976 games in 2006.  Was it any wonder the Olympic Stadium was nicknamed “The Big Owe”?

My personal investment in the Canadian team was a little over $3.50.  Which isn’t a lot until you multiply it by our population and realize that each of our medals cost Canadians 5.5 million dollars.  Not a bad deal when you discover the Australians paid double that for their medals. And I don’t begrudge it, that’s just the price of a couple of cups of coffee over four years. 

But I wonder why countries like Brazil, where over half the population lives in poverty, feel the need to spend tens of billions of dollars to host the games?  Guess it goes back to what my Daddy used to say, “I’m spending money I don’t have, to buy things I don’t need, to impress people I don’t like.”

I will never be responsible for Olympic spending, but God expects me to be responsible with what he has given me, and that is enough of a challenge.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Here He Comes

“Planet Earth Pauses to Watch the Spectacle of Sprint”  That was the headline that caught my attention the other day, and at first I thought that if the rest of the world was like me, the headline probably wasn’t far off.  There doesn’t seem to be an Olympic event that captures the attention of the world like the men’s 100 metre sprint.  It is the sporting event that I watch faithfully… every four years.  And it’s not just a gold medal at stake, there is the entire bragging rights of being the fastest man in the world.

But then I realized that the headline was more hyperbole than reality.  Most of the world has more important things to worry about than a 10 second race, things like survival.
However, the Bible tells us that there will be an event that will capture the attention of the entire planet, and that event is the return of Jesus.

And when that happens everyone will pause, and while there were those who were indifferent to the outcome of the Olympic event there will be no one, not one, who will be indifferent to the return of Christ.  And the only person who can decide what the return of Christ will mean to you, is you.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.