Decorating a 'Christmas tree' at FCA  

 

Have you made God say ‘Wow!’ today?

Dec. 13, 2007

 

 

“What did you do today to make God say, ‘Wow!’?”

 

The speaker: Dave Schroeder, the Montezuma High School principal.

 

The audience: Several dozen of his students, attending a Fellowship of Christian Athletes Christmas party at the Presbyterian Family Center on Thursday evening, Dec. 13.

 

Schroeder can’t talk to his students that way at school, but he can in a church setting – and he enjoys getting the opportunity that invitations to FCA meetings afford him.

 

“As I walk in our classrooms every day, I realize that our teachers need to do more,” Schroeder said. “But you need to do more, too. You can say, ‘the teacher doesn’t make me do this or make me do that. But at some point, the push has to come from inside of you.”

 

“Competition sharpens you,” Schroeder said. “But you need to have an attitude of gratitude. Be thankful for your opponent. They’re making you better.”

 

Schroeder illustrated with a story involving Jesse Owens, one of America’s all-time Olympic heroes, and something that happened during the 1936 Games in Berlin.

 

“What was happening at the time were the beginnings of World War II,” Schroeder said. “Adolf Hitler was chancellor of Germany and he wanted to develop a master Aryan, or white, race. Jesse Owens was a black man, making him close to the opposite of what Hitler stood for,” Schroeder said.

 

“Jesse Owens was considered the best long-jumper in the world,” Schroeder said. “Germany also had a great long jumper. His name was Luz Long.”

 

“At that time, they did prelims and took the best jumpers into finals,” Schroeder said.

 

“Owens scratched on his first two jumps in prelims and had just one jump left,” Schroeder said. “He was really nervous.”

 

“But Luz Long viewed Jesse as a brother. He came over and talked to Jesse. He told him to play it safe on his last jump, to take off a safe distance behind the board and qualify for the finals, ‘because I want to compete against you,’ Long said.”

 

“Owens heeded his opponent’s advice and qualified for the finals,” Schroeder said. “Jesse Owens not only won the event, he set a new Olympic record.”

 

“Hitler was angry,” Schroeder said. “After the games, he put Luz Long into an army unit on the frontlines where he knew Long likely would be killed. And he was killed,” Schroeder said.

 

Wait, there’s more . . .

 

“But what most people don’t know is the rest of the story.”

 

“Some time later, Jesse Owens received a telephone call from Luz Long’s daughter,” Schroeder said.

 

“She was asking him for a favor. She told Owens she was going to be married, but that her dad was no longer there. ‘Would you give me away at my wedding?’ she asked Owens.”

 

That may have been a day when God said, ‘Wow!’

 

“God has big plans for all of you,” Schroeder told the students.

 

Schroeder cited Jeremiah 29:11:

 

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

 

“Everything happens for a reason,” Schroeder said. “His love for you put Him on the cross. He seeks you out, even in the night.”

 

“When I see one of you in the hall, I may ask you, ‘did you make Him say, ‘Wow!’ yet?”

 

This was a Christmas party, and after the meeting opened, FCA huddle leader John Bushong pointed to a picture of a Christmas tree, to which had been attached numerous $2 bills, as if they were ornaments.

 

“Now, here’s something your parents are wrong about,” laughed Bushong. “Money really does grow on trees!”

 

The students were then invited to come up and grab a $2 bill.

 

After prayer, the students enjoyed pizza.

 

Then, it was time for a Christmas tree decorating contest. Only the students were the trees. Two students at a time were wrapped with ribbon, adorned with bows and decorated with strings of electric lights.

 

When “finished,” all of the “trees” were lighted.

 

It wasn’t really a contest. But all seemed to have fun doing it.

 

And then ice cream.

  

More Christmas trees . . .

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