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“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” said hockey great Wayne Gretzky. This is failure by default. Of course, if you do take the shot, you still may not score. If you were a terrible hockey player, you might only score once out of 99 attempts, but you’d still be ahead of the guy who never scores because he never tries!

I was sound asleep when it began. Sheets of rain poured down, lightning, thunder. Then hail pummelled my roof. It went on and on and seemed like it would never end. I had experienced heavy downpours before, but nothing like this!

We’ve all heard about the sin of sloth. Why is sloth a sin? It’s a sin, I think, because in order to be saved, we do have to work. That doesn’t mean that we can earn salvation or that we can save ourselves. However, if God does 99 percent of what is necessary for our salvation, He still demands that we do the remaining one percent. And that one percent is not easy. It may at times seem impossible, and that is why we have to be persistent.

Many years ago, when I was in journalism school, I went to see a doctor. I was feeling lethargic. He ran the usual tests and, when they came back normal, he gave me this pearl of wisdom: “Get off your *ss!” It certainly wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I never forgot his advice.

About ten months ago, I joined the ranks of the unemployed for the first time. I had worked for the same organization for 16 years and was then “constructively dismissed.” Needless to say, I didn’t take it too well. It was a real blow to my ego and my sense of security.

As I did less and less each passing month, depression set in. Mornings were the worst. I’d wake up, lie in bed, and think about my predicament. I felt like you-know-what. I knew that I could go one of two ways: become lazy and resentful or get off my *ss!

Sometimes, I’m deeply envious of my three-year-old son. As a middle-aged man, there aren’t too many things in life that really excite me anymore. I’m not saying that I get no pleasure out of life, but that little things – like playing in dirt or running through a sprinkler – just don’t turn me on that much.

The other day, I set up a fun lawn sprinkler designed for children. It looked like some sort of caterpillar with many legs. I turned it on and it sprayed water in all directions, wiggling and gyrating wildly. My son screamed with delight and his face beamed with joy. I videotaped him having fun. He would run up to the sprinkler and jump up and down, while water splashed off his face and drenched his clothes. Then he would run up to my camera, screaming with delight. Over and over, he did this, until it was time to turn off the water and go inside.