Here’s hoping that you’ll suit up and participate in the Olympic spirit! We’re going to watch amazing athletes. Not a one got to the Olympics by being unfocused and undisciplined. Dreams of gold can’t be realized without incredibly long hard days and years of focused training.
David Francis had that kind of spirit. He wasn’t a world class athlete, just a college baseball player in the late 1860’s. But when David Francis put on his business suit, his focus and discipline rivaled any Olympian. Senator Harry Hawes said, Francis “was a big man who had big conceptions…and did big things.”
More than anyone else, David Francis was responsible for the first Olympics held in the western hemisphere. They were held in St. Louis in 1904 on the new campus of Washington University, just a few blocks north of Concordia Seminary. The stadium and gymnasium for those games are still in use, named after David Francis. Said Senator Hawes, “He invited the nation and the nation came; he invited the world and the world came.”
Do you ever get weary of people who talk about their vision? I’m indebted…and so are you…to people who work long and hard to realize their vision for the good of us all. That’s an Olympic spirit we can all put on. “Faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26).
Next week Diane and I are going to take some time off. No Minute. We do thank you for reading these little offerings!