The Waiting Game

This morning I was hearing more from James, this time about being patient (5:7-11).  It occurred to me that being patient is often referred to as "the waiting game." I first thought to myself after reading about patience that it is not a game at all.  And then I thought to myself that if it were a game, it would be an endurance sport.  So of course I thought of the currently enduring Olympic games in London, and my love for its host city, and national culture.  Keeping calm and carrying on is the way to slowly, steadily, take the gold in the waiting game.

(P.S. I have decided I am a full-on Anglophile.  This is encouraged in part by rewatching season 2 of Downton Abbey.)

Passing the torch

So I cried a little when I watched the American women's gymnastics team win a gold last night.  It was a very sweet win!  I remember watching as a kid and thinking how graceful the gymnasts were.  I myself learned to do a cartwheel in my lifetime.  Could even do one on a balance beam.  Oh, yeah.

Now that swimming is wrapping up and most gymnastics are done, I think I'm going hand off the games to others to cheer the teams on.  My husband and I talked about how much more we've enjoyed watching this time around because it is all in HD.  Such a spectacle!  Yet I am too inspired by the athletes' discipline not to feel like I need to get to work.

Oh yeah - I loved the girls' jackets on the medal stand.  They're actually for sale.  Guess who won't be buying one?  But I predict this will be a new fashion trend.

Hey, Jude!

I would like to borrow on the Olympic theme so I can introduce my nephew.  But first, a happy little family drama.  I was watching the opening ceremonies without great hopes, and then my eyes began to widen as I realized I loved it, and I started contacting my family in a later time zone to let them know they should tune in.  Halfway through the show on my brother's end I checked to see if he was as enthralled - he texted, "Relatively confused but entertained." Ha!  I thought it was so appropriate we were texting about it since the scene he was watching was the "digital love story" of Frankie and June.

Anyhoo, I knew we were supposed to be expecting Paul McCartney in there somewhere, too, but it was just as good as it could get, at least for my family.  My dad is/was a serious Beatles fan and my brother is a rocker who named his little boy Jude after the song which Paul McCartney sang during the ceremony!  

So of course I texted my brother and my dad that they had to watch the show all the way to the very end because I knew they'd be wild about the performance.

Yesterday my SIL, Jude's mommy, sent me a few pics of the eponymous little guy.  Isn't he adorable?  Can't you just put these pictures together and imagine Sir McCartney directing him as he sings?

                Na na na                                                               Na na na na!

Hey, Jude!

Isn't he cute with his daddy in matching hats?  I had to ask my SIL permission to put these pics on my blog because I think Jude is the sweetest, cutest little thing but didn't want him overexposed.  So, here he is.  Thank you, Sir McCartney, for making the introduction!

Lord of the Rings

So, last night was the opening ceremonies of the Summer olympics in London.  I L-O-V-E-D it. So theatrical, funny, beautiful, brilliant, and British.  I loved how the music helped tell the story, and the fact that there were twenty things going on at once on a huge field and that the cameras were able to zoom in on certain vignettes so we could follow the story.  There were parts that were a bit confusing to me and I was glad that the commentators were explaining.  I hope that all of the members of the crowd had some kind of guide in their programs.

Before the ceremonies, I was feeling completely exhausted and discouraged by all that there was to do.  I felt the Lord remind me to "cease striving, and know that I am God." I read the rest of Psalm 46 while I rested.  It was good.  In college it was brought to my attention that "Be still and know that I am God" is just half of the verse; the other half is, "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

So, as I was watching the historical drama unfold on the olympic field, I was quite struck by all of the hymn singing.  I want to find out what some of those hymns were - one sounded like "Bread of Heaven" or something like that.  And it seemed like at one point in the children's hospital scene that the Mary Poppinses and others were dancing to "Good Christian Men, Rejoice."  I imagine it's just a traditional tune.

I watched almost all of the opening ceremonies.  I was tired, right?  And I was (and still am!) an English major, a somewhat closeted Anglo-phile, so I seriously soaked the whole thing in.  It didn't seem as long as it really was, to me.

Coincidentally, my daily Bible reading for yesterday also included Psalm 46.  It made me glad for the acknowledgement of Britain's Christian past, and a little sad that it was just considered part of the past.  It left me wondering if hymns and Christianity could be a significant part of Britain's future.