It’s getting colder outside here in Minnesota and the chill that
runs through my body isn’t just from the dropping temperatures. No, it is excitement
because soon the outdoor hockey rinks will be open for business; which means I
will be playing hockey on an outdoor sheet of ice!
Yes, I can play indoors pretty much any time of the year, but
having grown up on the pond (as well as playing indoors), my passionate heart
for the game always is pulled to choose outdoor ice. Because once again (in my
mind), I am ten years old, skating at the pond across the street from my
childhood home…
Some say that the older we get the better we were; oftentimes
spoken by athletes who are living vicariously through their children’s sporting
events.
But I say that with hockey players who play WAY past their prime; “The older we get the harder it is to play as
good as we once did!”
And so I am currently preparing my body for one more game; one more
winter season of outdoor hockey.
I do this by spending my time in the gym lifting weights and
building my endurance using an elliptical machine, hoping to get it ready to be
able to play with the young bucks trying to dethrone me.
I use the change in the weather to acclimate my body to playing
outside by driving around with the windows rolled down in my vehicles, and by
continuing to wear flip flops and no hats or gloves even though it IS cold
outside.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, all those concussions are starting to
have an effect!
As I write this today, I must confess that I don’t feel as ready to
go as I would like to. I don’t feel as young as I once was. I don’t as strong
as I did in my youth.
A contributing factor is that this year’s preparation time hasn’t
gone as well as I would have liked it to go. Usually by this time I feel good
enough to play and would normally be playing indoors. But a lingering cold has
delayed the process and I have had to struggle to get up to game strength as I
prepare for the battles and skirmishes that I will face on the ice.
And so my confidence is a little low at this time; after all, I am
fifty seven years old. And questions bark at me such as; “Do I have one more
game left in me?” or “Can I be as good as I was?” or “Is it even possible for
me to be as strong today as I was then?”
Time will tell as I will soon hear the drop of the puck and my
questions will be answered.
There was a man in the Bible who pondered similar questions. His
name was Caleb. You can read his story in Joshua 12:6-12.
Caleb is an eighty five year old man and for forty years he had
been preparing for a battle that one day he would face. Forty years he had been
waiting for what was to come and here he was at the age of eighty five still
preparing for his skirmish.
Forty years he had to do nothing but prepare, because when he tried
to do what he was supposed to do (fight a battle), he was out voted by ten men
who were too afraid that they couldn’t do what they were supposed to do because
the other team looked way too big. (See Numbers 13)
One day he went to his leader and friend, Joshua, and said;
“…here I am this
day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am
as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength
was then, so now is my strength for war, both for
going out and for coming in.” (Joshua 12:11)
Just as strong today as he was when he was forty; man, what kind of
supplements was he using? What was in that manna that he had eaten for forty
years?
The answer to his question can be found in verse twelve;
“It may be that
the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.”
His confidence was not in having spent forty years in the gym
lifting weights and building his endurance. His confidence that he still had it
in him was based in who the Lord is. His confidence was in the Lord.
Psalm 46 tells us that “God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in
trouble. Therefore we will not fear…” and “The
Lord of hosts is with
us…”
For
our part He is telling us to simply; “Be
still, and know that I am God;
I don’t know what battle faces you today or how well prepared you
feel to face it…But let me assure you that no matter what your condition is,
this skirmish doesn’t need to be all about you! You and I daily will face them,
but we need not do it alone; the Lord is waiting and available to help us. Ask
Him.
"Keep your
stick on the ice; I’m pulling for you!”
All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
