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Are you loving the Olympics games like we are at our house? We glue ourselves to the television every chance we get to watch the latest competition and cheer Team USA on to victory. Undoubtedly, the most thrilling event to watch to date was the men's 400-meter freestyle relay, when the Americans overcame the favored French team to win by a millisecond. Michael Phelps kept alive his chances of winning a record eight gold medals in this year's Olympics thanks to the great efforts of his relay teammates, Garret Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak. They all celebrated and savored their victory amid much hoopla and hollering. I hollered and hoopla-ed right along with them! But they didn't just get together one day last week and decide to jump in the pool and take a little swim. They've spent a lifetime in training and practice. Day-in, day-out, whether they felt like it or not, they made themselves endure the agonies and disciplines of preparation.
There is nothing quite so satisfying as typing those words THE END at the bottom of a completed manuscript. Like the pangs of childbirth, the pain and suffering of the act of writing a book is all but forgotten in the joy of victory. As your teammates on the publishing side of the book-writing business, we work with you. We're in this race together.
Acts 20: 24 reminds us of the reason we're in this race. . .the reason we endure and perservere and keep on writing and publishing when it would be so easy to give up: "...If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
6 comments:
I watched this, Becky. It was great. I'm not a big olympics fan. Something has to catch my attention to pull me in.
I have a weird reaction to these insanely skilled athletes. I watched synchonized diving for a while yesterday and I kept thinking, "Okay, they're doing dives beyond anything I could even think of, let alone perform. And now that's not hard enough so they've got to get a partner and STAY TOGETHER!!!!"
I'd never heard of synchonized diving before. Missed it somehow in the past.
But these people virtually FLY, they do thinks so complex they might as well just burst into flames and then rise out of the ashes like a phoenix. And one pair will dive and THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then another pair would dive and do, to me, something every bit as difficult, and do it brilliantly, and THE CROWD ALL GROANS IN UNISON.
Okay, these people should just SHUT UP! Everyone is really, really good.
Just picture me out there doing a belly-flop off that 100 high board if you want to GROAN.
Hey, Susan! It's definitely reassuring to know we have a team behind us as we write our books!
Wasn't that Olympic swimming relay amazing? The number of hours they practice is mind-boggling. I suppose we can look at the time we spend writing stories that don't sell as practice for the big event. That should take away some of the sting of rejection.
Our daughters swam competitively from age 6 through high school, so we always pay close attention to the swimming events. The men's relay was a real heart-stopper!!!
Diving, on the other hand ... it's beautiful to watch, but how can anybody accurately judge something that is over with in nanoseconds? I don't catch the nuances until they show the slo-mo replays from every possible angle.
And honestly, the competitor may have performed the same dive perfectly 100 times in practice, but if he's having a bad day at the actual competition, forget it. No second chances.
Tying this to writing, yea for editors who help us polish our manuscripts before anybody "out there" ever sees them.
My husband and I were watching that awesome swim relay. The announcer had the audience believing the U.S. was going to get a silver medal. But then Lezak put his heart into his swim and did the near impossible. My husband and I cheered so loud we woke up our youngest son who was in bed upstairs.
I think this race has challenged me to dig deeper when I think I've done the best I can with a book.
I, too, appreciate the Barbour team and all the help they been in publishing my books. Each person I've worked with has been kind and very helpful.
I watched it an am very proud of the aussies.
our commentators said it was frances medal to lose and thats what they did. It was an awesome swim by all 3 teams as all went under the old world record.
Mary One of the Aussies who got a bronze I think it was in syconized diving I got his autograph at the parade of athletes in Adelaide after the last games (Just happened to be in the city that day) Got to talk to his wife who got a gold and got lots of photos and autographs.
today I was excited by the Aussie women in the 4 x 200m relay they won a race on paper they couldn't win and I was so happy for them. Of course the only Gold australia have is from the women swimmers.
Im even enjoying handball and i dont understand it but i just cant handle basketball when its 2 teams i dont know
I love watching the Olympics. The swimmers are awesome. The great thing is that swimming is good for all ages. Can't swim like they do, but I can still do a few laps across the pool. (A rather narrow pool. :))
One problem, watching sure interferes with my sleep when they are on so late at night. Couldn't go to bed until I was sure the 2 American girls were Gold and Silver in the All-Around gymnastics compettion. How do they get their bodies in those positions?
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