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You’ve probably never heard the name Vinko Bogataj. Although, chances are good you’ve seen him on television dozens of times. Bogataj was a ski jumper from Yugoslavia who, during the 1970 world championship, fell during takeoff and landed on his head. He recovered fully from his injuries and would likely have gone back to being an obscure athlete in a little known sport except for one thing. For the next 30 years, ABC’s Wide World of Sports would run footage of Vinko Bogataj’s spectacular crash with the unforgettable voiceover “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”
I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church at Rock Creek. You know, sometimes our best opportunities for the future come from our most spectacular defeats in the past. Think about it. While most of us don’t live out our failures on worldwide television, we nevertheless know, all too well, the “agony of defeat.” You know, the marriage that didn’t work out; the job that didn’t work out; the plans that never materialized. Failure is as common as the grass we walk on in our front yard; it affects all of us without exception. What’s different is our response to failure; that’s what sets us apart. The fact is this; you’ll never know the “thrill of victory” unless you’re willing to risk the “agony of defeat.”

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Major league pitcher Ron Guidry had had enough. When the management of the New York Yankees decided he needed more development and sent him back to their farm team, he told his wife, “That’s it! I’m not going back to the minor leagues. I quit.” So the Guidry’s packed their stuff and headed back to their home town. Well at a restaurant near their house, Ron’s wife’s persistent encouragement paid off. He decided to report to his minor league team and give it one more shot. The next year Ron Guidry won the Cy Young award as the best pitcher in baseball.
Never forget that the power of encouragement can turn the most disappointed circumstances into an opportunity for success. You know, it’s the ability to say the right thing at the right time. I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church at Rock Creek. You know the great thing about encouragement is that it doesn’t cost us anything. We can give it without any negative impact on our checkbook or our finances. It doesn’t even require massive amounts of time. It’s a seed that we can plant in another person’s life. Water it on a regular basis and watch it grow with amazing results. For such a small investment, it reaps a huge reward. So take time to encourage someone close to you today. It’s one of the easiest and best gifts you’ll ever give.

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Kansas City sports writer Dick Wade once decided to find out exactly how much “action” occurred in a baseball game. He took a stopwatch to a game between Kansas City and Washington and counted the time it took a ball to leave the pitcher’s hand until it arrived at home plate. Then on all hit balls, he let the clock run until the batter was either out or safe. The total “action” during the 2 hour and 28 minute game, which produced 21 runs and a 15 to 6 Kansas City win, was 8 and half minutes.
You know, the game of life is a lot like the game of baseball. The preparation outweighs the action 10 to 1. The wise person prepares for action so that they are ready whenever it comes their way. I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church at Rock Creek. Life is long stretches of preparation interrupted by those quick bursts of performance. When you stop and think about it, everything we do is enhanced by the time we spend preparing for it. Our relationships, our work, our hobbies, there’s really no area of our life that doesn’t benefit from the time and effort of preparation. In fact, it’s in those times of preparation that we really develop the skills and the character that allow us to shine when the lights come on and it’s time to perform. Think of it this way, the time we spend in preparation for anything is like putting gas in our tank. When it comes time to actually drive the car, it’s good to know that we have the fuel that we need.

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An article in the Chicago Tribune told the story of a man who was walking along and decided to take a shortcut across the Tri-State Freeway. He got to the middle of the freeway when his hat blew off. As he turned around and reached back for it, he was struck by oncoming traffic and killed instantly. The last sentence of that article read, “It’s amazing how you can lose everything chasing nothing.”
You know, have you ever stopped to think about what it is you’re chasing with your life? The price you’re paying for it. I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church at Rock Creek. You know, maybe it’s time to think in new ways about the direction of your life. Maybe it’s time to stop chasing and start focusing your life. Think about what it is you’re always running after in your life. In the bible, Solomon has a lot to say about how easy it is for us to get caught up in meaningless pursuits with our time. You know, how easy it is to get distracted with your life. You know, in fact the entire bible has a theme that runs through it, from cover to cover, that basically says focus on what really matters with your life. It comes time when you have to stop being distracted by what’s not important, when you have to decide what it is in your life that matters most. Because when you focus on what really matters you will find that happiness will soon follow.

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In life, it’s easy to get turned around and headed down the wrong path. This reminds me of an anecdote about a football player by the name of Roy Reigels. It was during the 1929 Rose Bowl, that Georgia Tech defender Roy Reigels made a spectacular play in which he forced and recovered the same fumble. He then took off toward the endzone, but in the midst of the confusion, he got turned around. He was running toward the wrong endzone. Fortunately, his own teammates were able to run him down and stop him. Then came halftime. It was during halftime that Georgia Tech coach, Ned Price, inspired his team and Reigels with a rousing speech  stating that “This game is only half over. Let’s get back out there and play football!” Roy played and he played well after hearing that inspiring speech.

The significance in this anecdote isn’t found in the outcome of the 1929 Rose Bowl, rather it’s found in the message that it’s never too late to turn things around. Regardless of where you may have taken a wrong turn down the path of life, it’s never too late to turn it around.

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“Hours behind the runner in front of him that last marathoner finally entered the Olympic stadium. By that time, the drama of the day’s events was almost over. Most of the spectators had gone home. Limping into the arena, the Tanzanian runner grimaced with every step. His knee bleeding and bandaged from an earlier fall. His ragged appearance immediately caught the attention of the remaining crowd who cheered him onto the finish line.

Why did he stay in the race? What made him endure his injuries to the end? When asked that later he replied, “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race, they sent me 7,000 miles to finish it. I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church of Rock Creek. You know, you got to remember that how you start isn’t what counts, what matters is how you finish. You know, what does it take to knock you out of the race? As uncomfortable as that question might be, it’s a good one to ask ourselves. How many unfinished project do you have hanging over you head right now, without really any plan to finish them?

The world is full of people who start things and they never can complete them. It might be something big like a college degree or something… like a little project around the house. Some people, frankly, tend to thrive in an atmosphere like that, but for most of us, every time we think of what we haven’t finished it just yells failure to us. The wise person, though, begins a task with the end in mind. You know, think about this, any goal worth pursuing in the first place is a goal worth achieving so finish what you start. It’ll help you move toward the pathway to actually win at life.”

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“Years ago, a young baseball player’s long ball hitting got the attention of a pro scout and the boy was offered a contract. When he went off to spring training he did well. Each week, he wired his mother back home to inform her of his progress.

Week 1: Dear Mom: Leading all batters these pitchers aren’t so tough.

Week 2: Dear Mom: Looks like I’ll be starting in the infield, now hitting .500

Week 3: Dear Mom: Today they started throwing curves. We’ll be home on Friday.

I’m Mark Evans, pastor at the Church of Rock Creek. You know, when life throws you a curve, don’t quit and go home. Most of us have had that experience at one point or another in our lives, thinking that we’ve got everything together, we’re on top of things, we’re making progress only to be blindsided by something that comes out of nowhere. You know it happens. It happens in business, it happens in marriages, it happens at the doctor’s office. Life throws you a curve and you’re immediately faced with a choice. Do you quit and go home or do you dig in and fight? The immediate temptation is almost always to give up and pack it in.

When our emotions are overwhelmed, life is suddenly unfamiliar. We often choose to run, but the truth is that strategy never fixes anything. Because wherever you go, there you are. You run to a new relationship, a new job, a new doctor, a new place. You’ll quickly discover that you bring your problem with you. The only way out is through it. You’ve got to face it, no matter how overwhelming it is. Life will throw you curves. Champions are made when you choose not to back down, not to quit, but keep going.”

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“On August 6th 1999, a major league baseball player stepped up to home plate made another out. The 5,113th of his professional career. You know that’s a lot of trips to the batter’s box without a hit. Do you think he had failed himself or his team? No. You see, earlier in that same game, that player had reached a milestone that only 21 other people at that time in the history of baseball, had ever achieved. He made is 3,000th hit. That player was Tony Guinn of the San Diego Padres, and if you know baseball, you recognize that Tony’s ability to get a hit only one time for every three attempts made him the greatest hitter of his generation.

I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church at Rock Creek. You know in life to get hits, you got to make a lot of outs. Now take a second to think about that. I didn’t say a few outs or an occasional out, i said a lot of outs. More outs, in fact, than hits. And successful people know that life is just like that They swing and they miss again and again. They don’t swing once, miss and then quit. They keep trying, making changes necessary to finally get a hit.

You know, too many of us fall victim to the quick fix mentality that’s so prevalent in our world. We want instant success with little or no effort required on our part. We want to win the lottery, you know. We want to fix our money problems fast. It’s only the true champions in life, who realize that success means lots of trips to the batter’s box to face the prospect of another out. It’s just like lots of sales people know that you have to get a lot of no’s to finally get a yes. So don’t be discouraged by the outs, see them for what they are. The signs posted on the road to success.”

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“James Whitaker was the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest. His journey to the 29,000 ft. peak lead him through avalanches, dehydration, physical fatigue, and mental exhaustion. Most who dared to attempt the climb before him failed, but he succeeded. And when asked about it he said, “You don’t really conquer Everest, you conquer yourself. You’ll overcome the sickness and everything else, pains, aches, fears, to reach the summit.

I’m Mark Evans, pastor of the Church of Rock Creek. You know, don’t lose sight of the fact that the journey to the top starts inside of you. All of us have an Everest. There’s a mountain that has hung out in the distance for most of our life that’s calling us to take it on. Maybe it’s a business you’ve always dreamed about starting or a book you wanted to write. Maybe it’s a skill that you wanted to acquire. That trip that you’ve talked about for years. You decide you want to spend your days doing something meaningful, something beyond just earning a paycheck. Like the mountain itself, our own personal Everest is intimidating because we could fail.

We can think of a hundred reason why we shouldn’t do it, or why we shouldn’t even attempt it. But day after day, our Everest is still there. You keep thinking about it. I always say if you can stop thinking about it, don’t stop working on it. You won’t accomplish it in a day, probably not even a month or a year. You might fail once, you might fail a hundred times. It may take everything you’ve got to find the courage to begin. But the fact is you’ll never be satisfied until you move toward it. So go ahead, take the chance, try it today!”