hockey game

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Knowing The Outcome, I Was Surprised At My Engagement

When you know the outcome, your engagement with the subject changes drastically.

knowing the outcome

You may watch a program on television that you’ve seen before. You may not have seen it for a while, and may not remember all the details, but what you do remember enables you to watch the program differently.

You might watch it while you are doing something else so that you are not fully engaged with the program. After all, you know the story line. 

Then there are times when we might try to avoid knowing the outcome so that we can watch it after the fact but as if we were taking it all in live.

There are some movies, however, that you may have never seen but their outcome is so predictable that you know in advance how they will end. 

I’m thinking specifically of some of the Hallmark romance movies my wife watched over Christmas. I’d watch them for less than five minutes and know what guy was going to marry the girl in the story. 

In those cases I just turned around and found something else to do. 

But the other day I watched the last three minutes of a hockey game I had seen the day before.

It was a close game, a game that mattered to me. I remembered how tense I was as the other team pulled their goalie and had a man advantage. They hemmed my team in their own end and, with each shot, there was a fear that it would weave its way through the crowd of players on the ice into the back of the net. 

At any moment I feared the game would be tied up and sent into overtime. 

When I watched the game I couldn’t turn away; I couldn’t do something else. I was all in, fully engaged in the play.

In the end, my team kept the puck out and with about 4 or 5 seconds left to go in the game they got an empty-netter to seal their victory.

The next day when I watched that last part of the game for the second time, of course I didn’t watch with the same emotion. I knew how things turned out so I wasn’t as tense. 

When the Leafs couldn’t get the puck out of their end, I knew that it didn’t end badly for them. But surprisingly, there was still some emotion and engagement with those last few moments of the game.

I noticed the times when they could have cleared the puck and reduced the pressure, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen. 

I found I analyzed the play more than when I watched it the first time. I even had a few suggestions for the team watching them play the second time around. 

What surprised me was that I was as interested in watching the game the second time around as I was seeing it the first time. … I just had a different perspective. 

Here’s the thing: When you place your faith in Jesus Christ you know what is going to happen at the end of your life on earth. There is nothing up in the air, no fear of a sudden change. But you still live your life to the full, engaged in every moment and detail you experience. It’s just that the outcome is certain.

That’s Life!

Paul 

Question: Do you have the outcome of your life settled? Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Youth In My Family Now Have The Edge

The youth are taking over – at least it’s true in my family. Every year when my family gets together for Christmas we rent some ice and have a game of hockey.

We’ve been doing it for a long time now. When we started, I didn’t have to play very hard to show up the young guys.

It’s different now; each year my son and the nephews have gotten bigger, faster, stronger.

I still look forward to our little get-together but it takes a lot more out of me to keep up with them.

I guess that’s why there is so much focus on youth. They have all the potential; they are so agile; they have such great skill.

I see it in junior hockey, and especially in the annual world junior hockey tournament that’s about to start. It showcases the best young hockey talent in the world and everyone is playing for their country.

The speed at which these kids skate, and the moves they make – with and without the puck – is incredible.

That is why even the NHL is on a youth movement right now. To play in the NHL these days you have to be able to keep up with, or be better than, the 19 and 20 year olds.

Hockey highlight programs on TV show replay footage of teenagers in the NHL making incredible plays almost every night.

The youth really are taking over.

On the downside, the old guys like me are losing ground each year. We are not as fast as we once were; our hands are not what they once were.

Maybe more than all that is we don’t have the stamina or the energy we once had. I get winded quickly. I give a second thought to back-checking when the other team steals the puck.

In the friendly game we had this Christmas, I found it harder to keep the puck on my stick. Even the youngest of nephews was able to check the puck off me. I’d make a rush up the ice and that was about it for the next couple of minutes.

I remember when I was younger I could play all day and never tire. I hated having to go to the bench. I only went to give others a chance to play; I sure didn’t need the rest!

Now I take short shifts and actually enjoy my time when I’m on the bench, catching my breath. … Although with my past heart issues, I will often pace behind the bench to bring my heart rate down slowly.

Don’t get me wrong, I can still keep up, but they are starting to take over. There’s more of them and they are more dominant now.

I guess I should be sad to see the changing of the guard, knowing that it’s time to step aside for the youth movement in our family.

But you know, you also can’t help but see yourself in family. When I see my son or one of my nephews skate up the ice, I only have pride.

Here’s the thing: The more we start to age, the more we notice how the youth are taking over. But when it comes to spiritual things, we should allow the ancient one, the God of Abraham and Isaac to take over. That is the one area where youth don’t run the show. Let Christ take over your life. Here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What needs to move over in your life? Leave your comments below.

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I Can’t Believe I Forgot that Event!

How can you forget an event you had planned for and were looking forward to? … You might do that if you were very busy and it was just one of many things you had to do.

KF-Game-Spotlight

Well, I did that when I had nothing else to do. And it wasn’t like I remembered part way through and was able to just get there late. I didn’t think of it until it was over!

It was New Year’s Day, our daughter was in town and there was an OHL hockey game scheduled. Being the chaplain of the team, I’m kind of expected to show up to games.

I usually make arrangement for tickets the week of a game, but with the holidays things got messed up. So just two days before the game, I called a guy and arranged to get three tickets.

The tickets would be waiting for me at the main gate … They’re probably still there waiting for me.

I was looking forward to going with Lily and Karlie. We didn’t have anything else to do or anywhere else to go, so it was perfect.

New Year’s Day was a pretty lazy affair. I went to see Star Wars in an empty theatre with my son, took an afternoon nap, and worked on my sermon.

I was looking for something to do, wanting something to do before Lily suggested something that I didn’t want to do.

She suggested that we play a game … and in hindsight you’d think that would have triggered thoughts of the hockey game we had tickets to.

Since I’m not a fan of playing games, and since I had nothing else to do, I decided it would be a good time to put the winter tires on the car … I didn’t really want to change the tires but it was something that needed to get done.

After that task was finished, I checked in with Lily and Karlie playing a game, each of them trying to beat the other and beat their own scores.

That didn’t even jiggle loose any memory of the hockey game from the far regions of my brain.

I then decided it would be a good time to rent a movie. After checking out all the possibilities on TV and having to make a tough decision on a rental, I finally settled down to my movie.

The first couple of scenes came on and I don’t even know what it was, but all of a sudden I remembered – WE HAD TICKETS TO THE GAME TONIGHT!

It was 9:30 pm at that point; the game would have been over. I yelled down to Lily and Karlie, “We forgot we had tickets to the game tonight!” … I heard many groans of disappointment from the basement.

It turned out that the boys didn’t need me cheering them on. They won 5-3 on their own.

Maybe I need a little more in my schedule to keep me attentive to the things I have planned.

Here’s the thing: I don’t know how many times I have forgotten to ask God for help, until it was almost too late or was too late. There have been times someone else has said to me, “Have you prayed about that yet?”, and no, I hadn’t. The great news is God never forgets about us, so learn from your forgetfulness and keep going. There’s always another game.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are some reasons why you don’t think of first asking God for help? Leave your comment below.