The BIG E WORDS that Travel

Just recently I completed my Football Season watching the Super Bowl. I am ready for a pause this season until the next. Now I can catch other less stimulating sports like Curling.

I AM NOT against Curling – it is just not something that makes sense for me – screaming at people that are sweeping to make them work harder after you have thrown a bad rock…. well it just seems dumb! But if they are screaming, “SWEEP” to the Rock… it is a ROCK and it can’t hear you…duh?! Or – better yet, “TURN! TURN! TURN YOU STUPID ROCK TURN!”

I have heard all that said and watched it done.

Football TV makes more sense… you can yell, “Come on… Come on… YES!” and your player or Team makes the crucial play. But you don’t see or hear Football Players screaming, “SWEEP!” – “RUUUUUUN!” No quarterback in Football would say that kind of thing after he throws the ball. Can you imagine what he would look like if he did?

Now pick your favourite sport or game. There will be two “E Words” present in your life if you enjoy what you are watching (or participating in).

Here they are… EXCITEMENT and ENCOURAGEMENT. The Big “E Words”.

I admit that even Curling has the qualities in it that allow the two Big “E Words”. Football certainly does.

Curling for the most part is kind of boring as a spectator sport. Men with brooms stand looking at non moving rocks on a sheet of ice….well it is just slow… kind of really slow…until some one throws a gently gliding rock down the long thin sheet of ice… and it excitedly nudges another dormant rock sitting quietly by itself at the other end not bothering anyone…. Then all the curlers wake up and Scream – “SWEEEEEEP!” That has to be the ultimate Big E Word – “Encouragement” at that moment.

On the side…Curling fans in the stands…never yell…. “SWEEEEEEEP!” – but put a football fan watching in the Curling Rink and he will likely yell louder than the guy screaming at the rock sliding quietly down the ice. He will also have his shirt off and his belly painted green – because he has EXCITEMENT”.

People watching Curling do clap their hands at the right moment… and even cheer a little bit. But I have yet to see one take off his shirt and paint his belly the colour of his team.

Silly and simple comparisons – I know. But isn’t that a lot like life for you and me?

I will do something that is impossible if someone is cheering me on. I will step into dangerous places and take on impossible tasks – if some one yells, “SWEEP!” or “Run!” or “Keep going we believe in you!”

Back to Football…
Look at the guy that usually gets the ball and then runs with it. He is almost always much smaller than the guys that are trying to stop him. Many times they out weigh him by over 75 to 100 pounds. They are taller, they are bigger and they are very strong. They itch to catch the little guy that is running so fast. When they do – they will smash the dude from his flying feet and take him down. From a flat out run to an instant stop – ‘BAM, CRASH, OUCH, Oooo that one hurt’ instant stop.

You have to have the BIG E WORD – “EXCITEMENT” to get up and do it again. In fact you needed it to do it the first time. Consider that the guy running knows that he will be hit by at least 200 pounds of muscle if not 400 or 600 or even 800. In some piles on the field there is a half a ton laying on the guy that was flying through them all at a break neck pace seconds before.

The other Big E Word was given to the little guy many times before…”You can do it! We believe in you.” “We are with you” works real well too. It encourages little men to do ridiculous things and then get up and do it again.

It encourages a team of six to travel around the world and throw stupid and dumb rocks down unknown sheets of ice – with a world watching them potentially blow it. Then they have screamed, “SWEEEP!” to boot for the whole world to hear.

Hey I admire Curlers as much as Football Players. It takes guts to do what they both do. But more than that they both must have two BIG E WORDS – EXCITEMENT and ENCOURAGEMENT…given by someone watching.

In a recent football game in a large, inside kind of stadium…the noise was so loud that the opposing team couldn’t hear the call by their quarterback – the man getting the ball to throw. The home team players stopped and looked at the crowd that was watching. They moved their arms up and down to encourage the crowd to yell louder…. And the crowd went nuts. They screamed so loud that the opposing team quarterback and his team fumbled their play and lost the ball.

There is nothing like a home team advantage – the Crowd loves you! Big E Words are everywhere. Big E Words make you do something that you are not able to normally do.

I stood by the bed of a man that was very weak. They had told him that they weren’t sure that he would be able to walk again. A therapist came into his room and got him out of bed. “Come on John, lets try a few steps today” were her words. John pushed and pulled until he was up on his feet… then John took a step.

John is walking today – slowly but he is walking.

I stood with a family that has been crushed by the worst nightmare that anyone has ever faced. Just being there was encouragement. Not much was said – but the Big E Words were there – by action.

However there is one word that will kill the Big E Words – that is REJECTION.

REJECTION is a bull dozer in a crystal glass shop of “Faint Hope”.

I met a boy that no one loved. He had potential and possibility…but every time he tried everyone said no.

He walked into my office with great difficulty. His condition as a paraplegic was evident. He has no voice and his hands struggled with the bag at his side. He retrieved a well worn typing communicator…kind of like a laptop computer… with a keyboard. His distended fingers tapped on the key board and a ticker tape was produced from the side of the machine… then he tore if off and gave it to me. It read, “I am an author and a writer. I have many stories to publish. I need someone to help me publish them. Do you need some one to write for you?”

I choked and almost cried. Here he was with so many impossibilities that held him back. He needed help… just two words “excitement” and “encouragement”.
Shish… today I have to find a Curler and scream,”SWEEEEP!”

How about you? Got any BIG, BIG E WORDS TO GIVE AWAY?

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
“SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP”