Hockey Chat:  Yup, that new guy on your team just blew the play.  And guess what, you probably will be in the wrong place at the wrong time and make the wrong move too.  Don’t criticize your teammates for the same things that you do…. making mistakes.  Just watch an NHL game and you could play arm chair coach all night.  It’s easy to say in hind sight what they should’ve done but much harder to actually be there doing it.

Hockey Chat: The Stanley Cup is the only trophy in professional sports that has the names of winning players, coaches, management and club staff engraved and passed to the new winner year after year.

When we avail ourselves to God, He manifests more of His character in us, making the extraordinary become the ordinary, as in the story of Daniel. Success often follows obedience and trust in God. As a result of Daniel’s obedience, he prospered in his position and caused the hearts of the people to be turned toward God.

Available hands reflect an available heart. When we are prepared to let God use us, He is prepared to do remarkable things through us. God’s presence and help is available to us every moment and everywhere. He is always with us, listens to us, and pursues us with His love.

Hockey Chat: In 1896, George Merritt of the Winnipeg Victorias was the first goalie to sport ordinary crickett pads during the Stanley Cup playoffs to help him stop pucks. Soon after, crickett pads were used by all goalies.

As athletes, we train to become faster and stronger. We try to bring as much power to our sport as we can. We may engage in a weight-training program. We may go out and run. We may attend a sports camp. But even more important than our physical training is our spiritual training.

Consider a plain, ordinary lightbulb. How much power does it put out? On its own, it puts out absolutely none. It has to be hooked to a power source in order to produce light.

This reminds me of the apostle Peter, a very interesting person. He was a common man (a fisherman by trade) but also a powerful man. And we certainly have to agree that Peter was dedicated to his calling.

Rafer Johnson’s dream of a good life hinged on his athletic ability, even though he’d been told that a birth defect would prevent him from participating in athletics. He chose to deal with the defect as a simple setback rather than as a deal breaker. With the help of coaches and family, he not only won his battle but was declared the world’s greatest athlete when he won the 1960 Olympic decathlon.

Most of you have probably heard the greatly catchy, but annoying Britney Spears song "Oops I did it Again". The lyrics of this song go something like "Oops I did it again, I played with your heart". The song stresses the idea of not only making the same mistakes over and over, but leading someone into thinking we like them more than we actually do. Unfortunately our lives as Christians look much the same.

God doesn’t always work the way we think He should. Sometimes the things that we think are tragedies turn out to be blessings. In the Bible, Joseph serves as the perfect example of tragedy-turned-blessing. When Joseph received a dream foreshadowing his role to reign over his brothers, his brothers grew angry and sold him into slavery. When Joseph was later falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison, it seemed that his dream would never come true.

Hockey Chat:  On November 2 of 2002, Tie Domi took a penalty and then let his emotions take his whole team out of the game.  His mouthing off and cursing at referee Brad Watson landed Domi a gross misconduct penalty and an accompanying fine of $200.  The Maple Leafs were scored on during the penalty and stayed back on their heels to lose the game 5-2.  His words cost him and the team a loss.

My dad was  a simple man. I know he did not have a resume or belonged any major civic, political or religious organizations or did things to impress the boss. I do know  that he got on his kness and prayed almost daily. He provided for his family, took pride in his work as a city employee and loved baseball. This July 25th he would've celebrated his 82nd birthday.

Last night our FCA Huddle completed our city clean-up project. While the act of adopting a one-mile stretch of the city streets in our small town is a small service, the fact that we had six Huddle members show up in cold, wet conditions said wonders about their dedication and commitment to serving their community. It would have been easy for them to blow off the event and stay home where it was dry so that they could work on homework or the 15-page paper many had due for their composition class. But these kids chose to take the path less traveled and work through steady rain showers to make their community a little nicer.