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An Amazing, Quick Turnaround

It is amazing how quick things can turn around. It doesn’t take much to get the mind going in a completely different direction.

Amazing, Quick Turnaround

Just over a week ago, the team that I chaplain in the OHL was riding an eleven game losing streak. 

I could see the frustration in the players’ eyes, hear it in their voices, and could tell they were losing confidence. They were wondering if there would ever be an end to the streak they were on. 

When you can’t buy a win, you begin to doubt yourself, your teammates and even your coaches. 

It’s like being on that teacup ride at Disney World where you are spinning at a dizzying pace. You just want off. You can’t control the spin of the cup you are in, and you want the operator to shut the ride down. In the meantime you keep spiralling downward, feeling sick as your stomach moves closer to your mouth.

I’m sure the team felt much like that. You lose hope that there is anything that will change your circumstances. 

I remember being on a team that went a whole season with only two wins. It was brutal. By the end of the season we were not even thinking of winning. All I could hope for was to maybe score a goal so I had something to feel good about.

But when you have been down for an extended time, you find you don’t have the hope inside you to even wish for a little thing that would be good.

If something small changes, however – even the slightest encouragement – it brings hope back like the tide coming in from the ocean. 

It’s like winter that can drag on and on, pushing you down and down. But when you see that first little bud on a tree, even though it’s still brown and shrivelled, or one blade of grass that is green, your hope of spring comes rushing back to you.

What was amazing about my team was that, just over a week later, they won four straight games and have had points in five consecutive outings.

They are riding on a huge wave of hope right now. They’ve even climbed out of the basement in their division. 

It started with a loss in overtime. They still got a point and could have easily won. That’s when their hope emerged. 

That hope gave them something to believe in the next night and they won that game. 

Their hope was alive, and it was like it had never left them. Their hope was new and fresh; it was bold. You could see it on their faces; you could hear it in their voices. 

And they kept riding that hope to another and another victory – four straight wins.

Hope – just a little of it – can spark something in us that keeps us going until something else comes along to increase our hope. 

It is amazing.

Here’s the thing: Wherever you are at in life right now – riding a crest of hope or scratching to find any semblance of hope – understand that true hope is not found in you or anything you can do, not even a fortunate happenstance. Hope is with you; hope is always with you. Real hope is found in Jesus Christ. And if you will seek Him, spend time with Him, speak to Him, He will show you the hope that you can have in any situation. Your mind can be changed in a moment. That’s truly amazing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need hope for right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Bring Back My Old Appliance!

My wife, Lily, was away on the weekend.  She had left me some things to eat that I could just heat up.  I thought it would be a nice idea to try out some of the kitchen appliances I hardly ever use.

I decided to toast a bun and then put some peanut butter on it – that would be natural peanut butter, not the Kraft kind.  You can tell the difference because when you open a fresh jar of natural peanut butter, there is about an inch of oil on top that you need to stir into the peanut butter.  If you have ever mixed cement, that’s pretty much what you have to do with the peanut butter.  You get out an auger and  . . . okay it’s not quite that bad.

Anyway, I decided I would toast the bun in our toaster oven.  We haven’t had it that long and I don’t use it all that often.  We had an old one that is now up at the cottage.  We inherited it from my dad; it’s pretty old, but it does the trick.

I noticed with this new toaster oven, however, that though it was clean and shiny and looked all modern, it takes forever to heat something up!  Normally, things progress by getting better and faster and more efficient.  I’m not sure this new toaster oven is more efficient or better, but I’m positive it’s NOT faster!

I put the bun in, set it to toast, and watched.  Nothing seemed to be happening.  I finally went and read the paper.  I almost forgot it was there.  Finally, after a section of the paper and two flyers, the bun had sufficiently been toasted.

What is the deal with that?  Why so long?  I wondered if maybe some two year old child had tried to stick his head in a toaster oven one time and some activist got the idea that we have to make toaster ovens safer.  So instead of heating things up fast, now they’re designed to heat things up over the course of a day.  That would give a two year old and his parents enough time to get his head out of the toaster oven before he singed a hair or something.

I’m longing for our toaster oven at the cottage.  You can burn yourself on that one if you’re not careful.  But you’re supposed to be careful; it’s an appliance that combines electricity and heat – two things that kids shouldn’t be playing with!  So maybe they could turn up the heat on new toaster ovens if we just promised to keep them off the kitchen floor, or out of the baby’s bedroom.

If we promised to place them on the kitchen counter that should be sufficient.  We had a climber in our family, but he was at least three and a half before he could scale or mount cabinetry.  By then he knew what to keep his head out of.  Hey, but what do I know?

Here’s the thing:  When I pray I want answers fast, preferably immediately.  But I don’t control the timing, I don’t even know all the details that go into answering a prayer.  It’s possible that to answer my prayer God has to answer several other people’s prayers.  I also don’t know whether it is best for God to say “yes” or whether “no” would be the right answer to my prayer.  All I know is I want my answer quickly, and I want it to be “yes”. God will do what’s best; I just need to be patient.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What do you need patience for?  Leave your comment below.