The Power of Team

The closing ceremony for the Sochi Olympic Games were held last night and so we conclude our short series from The Heart of a Champion with the chapter on the famous "Miracle on Ice."

Team USA, Hockey, 1980 Olympic Games

When Coach Herb Brooks envisioned the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, he did not see the world’s best individual hockey players. He saw team. He had only seven months to forge that team.

Many Olympic hockey teams, most notably the 1980 Soviet team, had been playing together for years. Described by sports writers as a “machine,” the Soviet team had dominated Olympic hockey for 16 years, even defeating the National Hockey League All-Stars in a 1979 exhibition.

Determination That Defeats Discouragement

With the Winter Olympics going on in Sochi, Russia, we are running chapters from the 1996 DPI book The Heart of a Champion. Here is the second of these. We will conclude next week with the famous "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid in 1980.

Lis Hartel , Equestrian, Denmark

 It was 1944. Lis Hartel, a 23-year-old equestrian, was pregnant when she received devastating news: She had polio, a feared crippler. As a result, this young woman with great ambitions was left almost entirely paralyzed. Who, in her shoes, would not have felt discouraged? But Lis Hartel was a determined woman. She refused to surrender to this cruel disease and began an intense physical therapy program. Slowly, through tedious training she began to regain use of her arms and, later, her legs.

The Race Marked Out for Us

Eighteen years ago with the Olympics about to be held in Atlanta,  DPI published a book of devotions based on twenty-eight people or events in Olympic history. With the Winter Olympics being held now in Sochi, Russia, we will reprint two complete chapters from that book, The Heart of a Champion. Here, this week, is the first.

Soul Security

I recently completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.” (Hebrews 6:19-20).

Security is a human need. We make a good many moves trying to find it. We act in various ways because we do not have it.  We look for it in social approval, as in having lots of people like us.  Some look for it in fame... in athletics, music, the arts. People who are my age tend to put a lot of emphasis on finances and wealth accumulation as they move into the retirement years.