Don't listen to what "they" say

The featured quote on today's HungerSite.org (where a cup of rice is donated to the hungry around the world each time you visit the site and click the button) featured Carl Lewis today:

Scientists have proven that it's impossible to long-jump 30 feet, but I don't listen to that kind of talk. Thoughts like that have a way of sinking into your feet.

The photo, by our friend Ava Parkes, is of Lewis when he spoke at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship while we were there during the Olympics. I got to perform 15 minutes from Beyond the Chariots during their first two services that morning. Then, Lewis closed the third service, dubbed Evening with the Stars, after about a dozen Olympic champions spoke.

The service, which was approved by the Chinese government, was broadcast all over the world.

Lewis was named by peers "the greatest athlete of the 20th century," a title which can never be taken away! His quote is encouraging on so many fronts, but having just come from teaching a drama ministry class at North Greenville University I hope it encourages those of us called to the arts that nothing but a different calling should keep us from doing what we've been created to do. In this financial climate it can be a scary proposition, but what's the worst that can happen? Poverty? A huge majority of the world's population lives in poverty. I've met people in some very poor nations: Bolivia (the poorest country in South America), Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and The Philippines. Most of the people in those nations have as much or more joy than people I've met in the US and Europe.

I'm not saying that we should let the poor stay joyfully hungry! I've partnered with Compassion to do what I can to bring an end to world poverty.

Neither am I saying that a calling to drama ministry is going to automatically lead to poverty. Joyce and I have been debt free all of our married lives. I'm just saying poverty is not something to fear, especially when we're working for a Boss that owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

By the way, Lewis never disproved the scientists about the 30' barrier in the long jump, but he came within ten inches of it. I doubt he would have come that close if he listened to those scientists.