Lessons From The Tour: The Long Road Ahead July 26, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized, Weblog, Tour De France, Breaking News , add a commentFROM AP --After an arduous 20 stages, Floyd Landis vaulted into the annals of cycling lore with Sunday’s win in the 103rd Tour, crowning a stunning comeback. All but written off after cracking in the final climb last Wednesday, the Phonak team leader managed a stunning rebound on Thursday on the the last mountain stage, pedaling like a madman to move up from 11th to third (only 30 seconds behind the yellow jersey) to put himself back in contention.
“It was the Hail Mary pass,” Floyd Landis said. “To my way of thinking, 11th place was the same as 80th place — I didn’t care, I wanted to win, so I took a risk.” In Saturday’s final time trial, Landis finished third but outpaced race leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain to gain a 59-second advantage and reclaim the race leader’s yellow jersey and win the Tour de France.
I am a Tour de France nut and a Christian on a continuous journey to grow in my relationship with Christ and to glorify him in everything I do. So having spent the good part of three weeks watching with complete fascination at the punishment, tactics and final bursts to win a stage, I sit back and realize there are many lessons one can learn from the Tour de France.
What lessons as Christians can we learn from such a spectacle, such as test of endurance…more than 2,200 miles of pounding pavement?
The first lesson is that there is the long road ahead. Most of the stages of the Tour de France were 100+ miles each day — day after day, up mountains and the pain of the climb, other times descending the mountain with complete exhilaration, then other times long stretches of nothing.
Learning who Jesus is and what He did for us is like getting to the starters booth for the prologue…..but the Christian life is a long road, filled with highs and lows and long dry stretches. Each day we need to crawl off after the long day and get massaged, filled with nourishment (time in the Word), talk to the coach (Prayer) and map out a plan for the next day. We need to pace ourselves and we need to have balance so that we don’t fizzle out early — we need to run the race set before us…..
“Greatest One Day Ride in Tour de France History” July 20, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized, Weblog, Tour De France , 1 comment so farFloyd Landis proved he has a guts and heart of a champion and wrote himself into the record books with the ‘greatest one day ride in the history of the 103-year Tour de France’. He attacked for more than 140 km attack on the peloton and the maillot jaune, and erased 7:38 of his time deficit IN ONE DAY! Only one day after he appeared to have no chance of winning. I sat glued for four hours to see this special performance by someone I had written off less than 24 hours earlier.
Many longtime devotees of professional cycling said they had never seen a performance — from Armstrong, from the legendary Eddy Merckx or from any other cyclist — like the one produced by Floyd Landis on Thursday in southeastern France. With a blistering 80-mile attack over three mammoth Alpine passes, Landis won the final mountain stage of this year’s Tour by nearly 6 minutes, regaining much of the time he lost when he suffered a near-total loss of energy on a steep, final climb on Wednesday.
No less an expert than the longtime Tour director, Jean-Marie LeBlanc, called Landis’ performance “the best stage I have ever followed.”
After bonking with 15 km to go, Landis fell from first place to 11th Wednesday. He won his first 2006 Tour stage and pulled to within 30 seconds of the leader, Spain`s Oscar Pereiro. Spain`s Carlos Sastre was in second place at the end of the day Thursday, 12 seconds behind Pereiro. This sets up Saturday’s 35 mile individual time trial as the decider of this year`s Tour de France. Saturday`s stage and Sunday`s finale are relatively flat stages that are expected to feature sprints to the finish among the top contenders.
See a writeup on Stage 17 at http://www.tdfblog.com/
Here is another great writeup from a sportwriter who was there
Guest Feedback Surveys July 8, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized, Sunday Services, Church , add a commentAt Park Community Church, we are a church that tries to understand relevant issues in our lives. A place where real people come, with their real problems, and their real questions. And while we know that coming to our church one Sunday won’t make everything perfect, we are a community of people on a similar journey - doing life in the city of Chicago, trying to juggle work and friends and a busy social calendar, and a little bit curious about what this whole God thing is all about. We are always looking to provide an environment where people can invite their friends, neighbors and co-workers to be part of the journey — to seek out truth that might mean something here for them, today, now.
We tell people to leave their expectations at the door. No one at Park is perfect. But we tell people: bring your questions, dare to ask if something better is out there. We meet on Sundays at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at 108 W. Germania Place (near Clark/North Ave.) Visit our Website and learn more about what Park is all about.
As we continue to learn and grow about doing church in the city, and focus on creating an open, inviting environment for people to hear the Gospel, we have recently implemented a short 13-question Guest Feedback Survey. This survey has given us good information to help us create a better Sunday environment for people to bring their friends and co-workers. We have found that it takes about 6-8 minutes to complete and helps us address three areas: Pre-Service and Post-Service (focusing on greeting and hospitality teams), the Worship time, and the Message. We then finish with a couple of questions about the person giving the feedback. (more…)
Superstar Blogger Changes Horses July 5, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized , add a commentJUNE 21 — How can you tell that blogging has gone mainstream? When a blogger leaves a company and the news is worthy of the Wall Street Journal homepage. In the world of blogging, few names conjure up superstar status like Robert Scoble. Word spread last week that Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft for a position with a Silicon Valley start-up named PodTech.net. The story made high page one headlines in the Wall Street Journal.
Passion June 29, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized, The City , add a commentJUNE 29 — Over the last several weeks, as I help lead us through our annual ministry planning process for our urban church in Chicago, I am struck by our leadership conversation asking each one of us…..WHAT IS YOUR PASSION? We are a church, mostly in our 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, who are trying to engage with God, and to show others how to engage with God. We are trying to reach out from the awesome grace we have received and to do urban ministry here in Chicago. To do that, you have to have passion for the lost and for the city.
What is passion? Webster’s defines it as…… “
A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.
2. 1. Ardent love.
2. Strong sexual desire; lust.
3. The object of such love or desire.
3. 1. Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don’t quite match his passion for the game.
2. The object of such enthusiasm: Soccer is her passion.
4. An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He’s been known to fly into a passion without warning.
5. Passion
1. The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament.
2. A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus’s sufferings.
6. Archaic. Martyrdom.
7. Archaic. Passivity.
8. Synonyms: passion, fervor, fire, zeal, ardor
These nouns denote powerful, intense emotion. Passion is a deep, overwhelming emotion: “There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy” (Richard Brinsley Sheridan). The term may signify sexual desire or anger: “He flew into a violent passion and abused me mercilessly” (H.G. Wells). Fervor is great warmth and intensity of feeling: “The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal” (William James). Fire is burning passion: “In our youth our hearts were touched with fire” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.). Zeal is strong, enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal and tireless diligence in its furtherance: “Laurie [resolved], with a glow of philanthropic zeal, to found and endow an institution for… women with artistic tendencies” (Louisa May Alcott). Ardor is fiery intensity of feeling: “the furious ardor of my zeal repressed” (Charles Churchill).
WHAT IS YOUR PASSION? Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ contribution to the computer-software industry is nothing short of astonishing. He didn’t invent the PC, he revolutionized it. He had a passion to be the best in the computer software business. Now, having conquered the industry, Gates is turning his attention — and a large portion of his personal fortune — to the charitable foundation he and his wife, Melinda, started in 2000. He recently announced that he intends to give up his day-to-day duties at the company over the next two years to concentrate on his foundation, which focuses on education and global health needs. He shows us his passion with the next line of his interview……”I’m very lucky to have two passions that I feel are so important and so challenging,” Gates said. “As I prepare for this change, I firmly believe the road ahead for Microsoft is as bright as ever.” Bill is passionate about focusing his time and efforts on education and global needs. Each of the nations represented in the FIFA World Cup play this month are passionate about their team. Cycling fans are passionate this month about about the Tour de France.
As we try to be salt and light, how do we use our passions to further the Kingdom, I love Erwin McManus’s talk at the 2004 Passion Conference — as he exhorts people to get up, engage with God, he finishes with “I don’t care what you do……JUST DO SOMETHING!” What do you think? Give me your thoughts……..
