Mike is one of my best friends. What you need to know about Mike is that he is a natural-born athlete. I, on the other hand, am a natural-born glutton for punishment. When Mike and I were in college and graduate school, we spent a lot of time working at our neighborhood pool during the summers. When there was a break in the action, we'd play some basketball on one of the hoops that was set up adjacent to the pool's tennis courts. I never beat him head-to-head. Let's just say that he was the Kevin McHale of our neighborhood, while I played basketball like the swimmer I was. Sometimes, though, one of Mike's best friends from college, Jeff, would stop by for a visit.

He received the handoff, and moved towards the line. They had him cornered, pinned in the backfield for a big loss. But next thing you know, Barry Sanders wiggled his way through all the defenders for a touchdown. Left standing in his dust, the linemen had to think, "We had him trapped! There's no way he could have gotten out of that jam." More often than not, Sanders did get out of the jams, and that is what made him such a special player. A modern-day football Houdini, Sanders broke through many traps set before him and turned calamity into celebration. All it took for Sanders was a small opening.

Three years after signing a record-setting $252 million, 10-year contract with the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez was traded to, of all teams, the New York Yankees. Exactly. A team with an already-outrageous payroll of $170.3 million per year is ready to bump $190 million to acquire Rodriguez, arguably the best player in the game. The Yankees will have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR players with 100+ million dollar contracts.

When NASCAR drivers head to Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, they know that they will need an extra dose of patience. Going into the 2004 Food City 500, Kurt Busch, looking to win his third consecutive race at Bristol, said, "There's no real reason to get in a hurry at all." Easy to say until you find yourself going 140 mph on the short half-mile track with forty-two other cars. Busch seems to know a little about winning there, holding off Rusty Wallace for his third win in a row and fourth of the last five races at Bristol.

When I read the story of Moses, most of the time I think to myself, “Why are these Israelites so whiny and doubting toward God? I mean, come on! He brings plagues; He parts the Red Sea; He feeds them for 40 years…What is their problem?" Almost every time I read a new verse, I see God doing something miraculous for them that causes them to believe again for about a millisecond before they turn away again.