Derby Day

Saturday was the Kentucky Derby. By the way I picked Animal Kingdom to win (not bragging or anything). It was fun to gather around the TV with the family and cheer on our favorite horse. The show leading up to the big race was as much entertainment as anything. I found it humorous how many people flocked from all over the world to Louisville. There were 160,000 people dressed in their finest (and strangest), goofy hats and all! It was strange to me that so many people come to an event they care nothing about in a costume they’d never wear anywhere else. Most of these people don’t even know which direction the horse runs around the track! Aaron Rodgers in his giant sunglasses. Joey Fatone in that nasty white suit. And the hats, don’t get me started on the hats.

But, in full disclosure I started thinking about how many costumes we wear on a weekly basis. We wear our Sunday School outfit on Sunday where we get dressed up in our finest and put on our best behavior for good measure as well. Then we have our every day “copy room” costume where we dress like all our other coworkers and do our best to blend in with the IN crowd and never, ever stand out. We have our family costume where we try to be comfortable in our own skin and make our families proud of us but we would never be caught dead acting this way anywhere else.

I wish people loved horse racing year round. It is a great sport. However, in the same ways I wish we (me included) could just be who we should be, who He designed us to be, and who we know we should be 365 days a year. Our wardrobe would have a lot less “costumes” in it. By the way, next year I’m going to the Derby and I’m going to wear the powder blue tux I wore to Kacee’s college formal! See what kind of attention I get! Aspire to new heights.

If you get a chance please lift up our Red Page mission team leaving for Romania on Thursday. I’m blessed to be leading a wonderful group of 14.