![]() Fellowship Southwest plans first-ever conference on compassion and social justice.Ohio voters reject conservative Christians’ effort to limit constitutional changes.The Barbie movie and Christian calling as a struggle of creation.What was I made for? Not to be pretty or skinny. ![]() If others are led to healthier days because of her bravery, then she gave us all a gift of far greater value.Ĭharles Qualls serves as pastor of Franklin Baptist Church in Franklin, Va. ![]() They’ll use her story as an example that sometimes you’ve got to admit you can’t carry the load anymore. But for the rest of my life, therapists and counselors will point to her as they help regular people like you and me. Will some sponsors suggest that she cost them some money? Probably. Suddenly, in the honesty of her own mental health she discovered a bigger picture.ĭid she disappoint a lot of people? Sure. The pressure of being perhaps the greatest ever in her sport had become more of a burden than she could carry. ![]() Perhaps only upon arriving in Tokyo did young Simone Biles realize that her tank had run empty. “Sometimes, you’ve got to admit you can’t carry the load anymore.” But you promise me that if you’ve got enough about you to win a national championship, then you’ve got enough about you to be a great citizen, a great role model, a great father and a great leader in your family.” You make sure that’s one of the best sports things in your life. I don’t want you to be 54 and say this was the best thing you ever did. He told his team: “I don’t want this to be the best thing that ever happens in your life. Legend has it that when coach Mack Brown led the University of Texas football team to the 2006 national championship, he gathered the team in the locker room. Sport at its best can prepare or teach us some things that are handy for living. Because when we look at things more deeply, we should admit that sport really isn’t life. The event’s motto was “Sport Is Life.” Each year, I would gaze at those words up on a 15-foot banner above the large platform and cringe. Nationally known athletes would show up as young local players were recognized. There would be more than 1,000 people in attendance. I used to get invited each year to offer an invocation at a huge sports banquet in Atlanta. “On one article, for instance, the only people who made disparaging comments about Biles’ choice were men - exclusively.” Not one woman posted anything other than support for her, among dozens of comments. But on one article, for instance, the only people who made disparaging comments about Biles’ choice were men - exclusively. I don’t altogether know how to make meaning. For some reason, I read the comments on these stories about her. That is, I normally don’t read the comments people post on news stories. When people ask me if the resulting surgery was worth it, some twisted part of me answers honestly, “Yes.”Īs I read the earliest of the news coverage about Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from Olympics competition due to mental health concerns, I violated a personal policy. In that game, I hit two home runs, a double, drove in five runs and tore a meniscus in my knee. I played my last softball at 44 in a charity game. Still, the competitor in me yearned for outlets. Yet, injuries and my friends developing as superior athletes would show me as a teenager that my dream wasn’t to be. I thought I was on my way when during a stretch of three games I pitched a no-hitter and two one-hitters. ![]() Some will say, “If you’ve played team sports, you’d know that you never quit on your team.” When I was a kid, my one dream was to be a professional baseball player. team already had an insurmountable lead and did not need her points. She’ll be compared, perhaps unfairly, with a predecessor gymnast named Keri Strug, who courageously made one more vault attempt in the 1996 games despite having torn ankle ligaments on her previous vault. We are not accustomed to seeing the greatest in the sports world reach the crowning moment only to stop short. I wince at the reality that many will brand her a quitter. ![]()
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