Let the Games Begin!

 

Are you ready? The 2026 Winter Olympics start in 2 days!

Are you a casual observer, content to tune in to a few evenings of the ice skating competition and watch a bobsled run or a ski jump or two? Or are you fully invested, as am I… planning to make this sporting event the main focus of the month ahead? If you’re the former, I hope you then just enjoy what events you occasionally catch. But if you’re as excited as I am, in what ways do you plan to enjoy these days?

Me? I knit. And every Olympics in recent history I’ve planned a personal Olympic challenge… I’ve picked a sweater pattern to start and complete in that two week time span. It doubles the fun of spending hours in front of the TV, letting dirty laundry, dishes, and dust accumulate around me as my body sits idly on the couch but my hands are working furiously on the goal at hand. Purpose and passion combined are good companions – and they don’t bother me with small talk as I’m counting stitches or rewinding a skating routine I want to see again.

Of course, I’m retired… which gives me extra time to devote to this nonsense. But even so, I block out the two weeks on the calendar, scheduling appointments and lunch dates with friends on either side of this semi-sacred stretch of days.

The fact that the Olympics are in Italy this year magnifies their attraction to me. I’m Italian, and have actually been to Milan, the center of this year’s Olympic experience. I can’t wait to see it again on TV. I plan to eat Italian food all month, double down on my efforts to learn the language, and will even listen to Italian love songs on the car radio should I be forced to leave my home for some reason, as a quiet nod to Valentine’s Day, which hits smack-dab in the middle of the activity and would likely otherwise go unnoticed in the midst of all this fun.

Because that’s what it is: it’s just fun… an easy way to celebrate the days and life that God’s given us.

I’ve been ready for weeks – sweater pattern selected, yarn purchased… I’m ready to go. Let the Games begin!!!

“Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes – God takes pleasure in your pleasure!... Each day is God’s gift. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it! And heartily!...”

(Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 MSG)

Challenge Accepted!

Imagine, if you will, a huge grid laid out upon a wall. On the left-hand side, listed from top to bottom are the months of the year, while the days of the month are written in ascending order from left to right across the bottom. At each space inside the grid is posted a picture of the sunrise on that day of the year. It was a showstopper of a display, filling us with wonder at the results of the photographer’s personal challenge to snap a picture of the sunrise each day. Not just for one year… but for five years, going on six, Bugsy Sailor was ready every morning, camera in hand, to document the moment the sun broke over the horizon.

 He couldn’t always see it. Understandably some days were cloudy, stormy, or foggy at the moment of sunrise. But the point is that he was there and snapped a picture, whether the sun was visible or not.

It was fun to pick a date and locate the photograph for that day and year combo. On the back of each picture he answered three questions: 1) Where was the picture taken? 2)What was the weather like?, and 3) Did the sun rise?

I loved the fact that the answer to Question #3 was always “Yes”. Whether he could see it or not, Bugsy knew that yes, the sun did indeed rise.

I found the discovery of his personal challenge so inspiring that I adopted it myself.

I am not a photographer, and I don’t usually see the physical rising of the sun over the horizon. Rather, I experience the spiritual rise of the Son in my heart during my devotional time at the same hour each morning, and I document the event in my subsequent journal entries.  

And I have discovered the same thing he did – that no matter what I’m facing each day, be it fun and adventure, or uncertainty and difficulty, the Son always rises. Making the effort to rise and be present to meet Him at an early hour of the morning enables me to face the rest of the hours of the day and whatever they contain with peace and joy.

After 1718 consecutive mornings, Bugsy missed the sunrise on Day # 1719. A dead phone battery kept his alarm from going off and he overslept. Can you imagine his despair? I love the fact that he simply got up the next morning and was back at it again.

We, too, being human, will have mornings when we miss our special time with the Lord. The important thing is not that your “streak” remains unbroken, but that you get up to meet Him again the next day and the next and the next.  Life is better when we make the effort to look for the Son.

Bugsy challenges us all to see more sunrises this year than we did last year. He says, “Most importantly, remember no matter how cloudy the day, or the adversity you face, the sun still rises.”

So will you.