Michael Phelps : dilemma of a young role model

He captured the hearts of millions worldwide when he swam to Olympic history last August.  He achieved a phenomenon that will not be repeated maybe in several decades.  Young, hip, affluent now because of his lucrative endorsements, Michael Phelps is on top of his game.

Then this week saw  that horrific image of him taken at a party somewhere.  The sports hero sniffing marijuana.

A picture of a well-loved and well-admired athlete hurting millions of people who adored him.

But the world is in so much pain to really make a big fuzz about Michael’s error in judgment.  While Kellogg removed his endorsements, others  are simply waiting for the whole issue to die down, especially since the stimulus package of Barrack Obama is grabbing the headlines these days.

We have seen this many times. Our heroic athletes “betray” our perception of them when they commit mistakes that make us cringe and ask what in the world were they thinking?!

One of the things that athletes have not fully considered is the fact that they are being admired not just for some special talents or abilities. The admiration they are receiving comes from the humanity that is elated at the possibilities of someone just doing it brighter, someone doing it higher, faster and stronger….

Yes they are already this generation’s icons.

Michael Phelps need to understand that world-class athletes like him are admired for who he is – and not just some dissociated parts of what he is.

Mentoring the Joshua Generation

I have been involved with the youth ministry for the past 22 years. It has been a very educational experience, to say the least.

I have been wanting to gather my thoughts and put them in one place so that it would be easily accessible to youth leaders and significant adults who are given the burden to mentor the next generation.

If you feel the call to invest your life on a younger person’s life, then feel free to visit the blog specifically designed for youth mentors and ministry leaders.

Feel free to visit this blog:

http://mentoringjoshua.blogspot.com

See you!  Together let us make an eternal investment by investing our lives on the next generation.

Wildfires in Australia

The fires are still blazing and 141 people have died.  Many of them still trapped in their cars as they were trying to escape.

Very horrendous and suspicions have been raised as to the real cause of these fires.  Firefighters were really stunned to discover that some of the fires already put out weeks ago were again ablazed by arsonists.

It is expected that there will be more casualties when this tragedy is over.

Please save the people.  Lord God please send a powerful rain to douse the fire in Australia.  They are going through the hot summer months and everything within miles are so dry that it could just literally flare up.

Please comfort the families who tragically lost their loved ones.

Lord God, have mercy and rescue those who are still very much threatened by the spreading bush fires.