February 8 – “An eventful day of rest”

I did something different yesterday.  I did my best to actually take a day of rest.  By that I mean I hid out in the garage most of the day and played around with some carving ideas I had.  Nothing concrete, and nothing is finished yet by any means.  But it was kind of a mindless activity and quite relaxing.  I guess it does for me what quilting does for Chris.  She was at the table working on one that she is doing entirely by hand when I went into the garage, and she was still sitting there when I came back in.  It allows us to focus for just a little while on something that doesn’t have earth-shattering, life-interrupting, eternal consequences. 

We did stop when the Olympics opening ceremonies began.  Well, we started to anyway.  Then it became apparent that the actual march in by the athletes wasn’t going to start until they finished interviewing the president.  I suppose they had to give the politicians enough political time to assure us that the Olympics wouldn’t be interrupted by politics.  We watched an episode of Elementary that we had taped instead.  The ceremonies finally did start, though, and we began the long wait for the US team to walk through.  They had to do a stylized history of Russia first, though.  That was pretty interesting, except maybe the ballet part.  And the opera singer.  I could have done without her, too.  The graphics displayed on the floor throughout the presentation were nothing short of amazing. 

That’s about the time I messed up on the whole day of rest thing.  My phone sounded the alarm that a structure fire had been reported not too far from where we live.  I couldn’t stand it.  I pulled on my chaplain shirt and cap, grabbed my heavy coat and headed over there.  As it turned out, this fire was not a very big one.  It looked like maybe someone had been smoking on the front porch and the ashes caught something else on fire.  The people who called it in were actually passers-by who stopped, called 9-1-1, and then grabbed a garden hose and had the fire pretty much out by the time the fire department arrived.  Our guys did their inspection to make sure everything was indeed out before heading back into service.  I did find out that there had been a pretty substantial fire earlier.  Much earlier.  Like around 2 in the morning.  It took the rest of the night to get that one out and everything cleaned up.  Then something happened where there was no hot water at the central station, so those guys ended up having to go over to station 5 to get a shower.  That had to be a miserable experience.  Drenched to the bone from fighting the fire.  Cold (there is apparently some kind of glitch in the heating at Central station as well.  Those guys usually sleep fully clothed under several blankets when the temperature drops).  I encouraged the fire fighters to stay warm themselves, and headed back home. 

I got there just in time to see the US do their grand entrance.  That’s one very large group of athletes we sent over there.  The only other part of the ceremony I was really interested in was the actually lighting of the flame.  Before that could happen, though, we had to hear from the president of the International Olympic Committee.  He had to do a little scolding of the politicians.  Told them to keep the politics off of the backs of the athletes.  I liked the guy.  Premier Putsin then called the games to order and the torch runners came in.  Among the runners were an international tennis player, a lady who “has been linked romantically with Putin, but the relationship has been denied by the government,” the goalie of the Russian hockey team that lost to the US miracle team in 1980, and the heavyweight wrestler who lost to the American a few Olympics back.  The torch lit a series of flames that danced up to the huge one that will remain lit throughout the Olympics.  When that flame exploded to life, it set off a massive fireworks display.  Pretty exciting stuff.  Now all the fluff is behind us and we can start the actual contests.  Ice hockey (which I don’t understand).  Figure skating (which Chris really enjoys, so … I … do … too).  Downhill skiing (that is pretty exciting).  And that all-time favorite … the contest of kings … the event that holds the entire world on the edge of its seat.  You know it.  I know it.  It is the whole reason they hold the winter Olympics in the first place.  It’s … curling.

Psalms 62:1-2 says, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

Father, thank you for the bit of rest I did get yesterday.  And thanks for the picture of you being Rest.  As long as I am in you, I am “at rest,” no matter what I am doing.  Wow.  Amen.