It was not just a hockey game – it was REALLY a moment in time – I was serving and helping at a pancake breakfast for the service club that my dad and mom helped with – and these were the days of the radio – the amplification was not just the volume but the excitement from the people in the kitchen – I was but 10 years old – I had no idea what the significance was until someone explained it to me – this was a Hockey game at the Olympics – I’m sure (now that I checked the schedule of when it happened) that this was the gold medal match of the USA vs Finland – and well – just days ahead of that was the USA vs Soviet Union hockey match up – the “Miracle on Ice” game at  Lake Placid NY – the underdog scrappy club of USA kids vs the professional powerhouse players of the USSR – and the ever so important phrase: “Do you believe in miracles?” uttered by commentator Al Michaels.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?  I DO – that game must have been watched/coached/played in higher and higher in anticipatory tension – and before I ever saw the recording of the game I saw the stadium itself – another service club event – the state convention in the same village and I actually went to that Lake Placid arena – as I have now seen the movies – including the new Netflix special: “The Boys of ’80” which I highly recommend…

“Play Your Game – Play Your Game” – was some of the minimal advice couch Herb Brooks would say – wow the movies and this new documentary do protray him as a tough guy for sure to play for, the players said he was hated in his ways, but he knew how to prep this team – he knew they had to be tough – and they knew it was going to take a miracle – one that the coach didn’t believe would happen and prepped mentally for maybe a bronze metal chance – but they never dreamed that a gold metal could actually happen – but they “played their game”… and they played to win… THEY WON !!!

What about us?  Are we in this game to win it? It is not a game and we are IN this life yes, and we are IN God’s care yes, and we do see God’s miracles all around us! One such miracle IS the miracle of faith – and we participate in this miracle right now – with returning to our trust and our faith. And we don’t think that God is out to save the underdog hockey team every day – even if this particular game was the impetace for a great re-revolution of SPIRIT in American hopefulness after a tumulteous time in economic downturns of the 70’s and the war efforts that stung, and even the 1976 bicentennial…  This game and the subsequent one of the gold medal game and me standing in the kitchen of that pancake breakfast reminded and reminds me that life is not about waiting on miracles but on working hard to make them happen.

I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES – and the hard work too – and have that Ben Franklkin expression that he never said: “God helps those who help themselves” – well, God helps EVERYONE including and especially those who can’t help what they can help… Our God is an ultimate God of energy – hope – underdog saving – and even supplies our faith when our faith fails.

The strength of us is in the strength of paying attention to God working in our midsts.

I believe in miracles – and I believe in God – and I believe God wants us to show others that we believe in Him, Lord God, to give them hope too.

I believe in blessings – and I believe that we have already won if we have realized that God won for us. This is no game – this is LOVE. God IS Love.

Amen

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” God speaking to Jeremiah 32:26-27 

I highly recommend reliving the memory of that game and those olympics especially the new netflix show:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Ice

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/5-things-you-didn-t-know-about-the-miracle-on-ice/ar-AA1zzRDs

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Moses spelled out “The Essence of the Law” in Deuteronomy 10:12-22

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.”