On a particularly hot summer afternoon Deacon Lawrence left his air-conditioned office to take a break from studying theology and visit his wife in her garden. As the deacon strolled into his wife’s vegetable garden, and inspired by his theology, he remarks “Oh Mrs Lawrence! Look at the shower of blessings and beautiful things that the Lord is pouring down on this garden right in front of our unworthy eyes. Mrs Lawrence looks up a little angry at him with her so-called unworthy eyes and rolls these eyes and sighs “That may be, Deacon Laurence; but you should have seen this vegetable garden when the Lord had it all to Himself!”
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I must confess, I am an Olympics tragic and now that they’re over I just don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. I live in a house with very holy men where there is not the culture of having the TV on in the background 24/7, which is probably a good thing so I found myself visiting some of my best friends in the whole world that I haven’t seen for four years and, well, won’t be visiting again for another four more. I made sure I didn’t borrow DVDs they’d miss.
So many of the Olympians proved themselves champions both inside and outside the arena. It was inspiring to listen to athletes being interviewed straight after a race, even straight after a loss, and hear how positive and philosophical they were about life. New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin and American Abey D’Agostino collided in the 5000 metre race and cared more about each other than winning a medal, thus showing the world that they really are world-class champions.
With the sad exception of the Lebanese Olympic team not allowing the Israeli Olympic team onto the bus headed for the opening ceremonies, all 207 participating nations displayed that we really are all from the same place and that every man is our brother and that every woman is our sister and the love and acceptance shown to all at the Opening Ceremonies by the Olympians proved these people were champions even before they had put on their runners. Under the gaze of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue it reminded me that redemption is inspired in many ways.
I was amazed again by how many of the Olympians blessed themselves before their event, including the still fastest man alive Usain Bolt, who blessed himself before and after he proved himself a champion.
So what does it mean to “bless yourself”? To bless yourself is to work with the gifts that God has given you. Jesus said “Ask and you will receive” and “When you ask for something, believe you have already received it” and even “the Kingdom of heaven is within you”. Some people expect God to do all their work and wonder why many things go wrong. They have forgotten that God helps those who help themselves.
Others are at the other extreme where they believe they can do anything at all by themselves without asking Heaven for any help or the help of anyone here on earth. They believe the cow really could have jumped over the moon if she had really wanted to. The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.
The Deacon Laurences of the world leave it all to God and they are weighing humanity down and the Mrs Laurences of the world are those who work hard with whatever God has dealt them. I believe there should be less Deacon Laurences and more Mrs Laurences. Those who try hard and work and compete with whatever limited resources they have been given in this life are the champions who bless themselves.