My Son Cedric Featured in Challenger Films, The Winning Edge

Airing on Fox and other media outlets in cities across the US, is a feature film on my second eldest son (it aired in Seattle area at 8:30 Saturday morning). Cedric is an athlete, training for the Olympics. He is a flat-water sprint kayak racer who has been a multiple National Champion, has been on 3 US Junior Worlds teams (racing in Russia twice, Czech Republic, and training in Slovakia and Italy), and the US Senior team, racing in Hungary, August of 2011.

He was chosen for this feature because of overcoming challenges in his life as an athlete and student. The producers of the film are more concerned with helping young adults make right choices and with the practical implications of right living and sports than with any overt message of the gospel of grace, the forgiveness of sins in Christ (though Challenger Films, as I understand it, is a Christian film maker). I say this, because I was waiting to hear the source and enabling to overcome temptations and challenges. It never came. Cedric would have a great deal more to say about overcoming sin in his life that what is here. Nevertheless, here it is, and it does underscore the grace of God, that no one is exempt from sin, and that there is a way out. But if falls short of giving us the way out--Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Then there's the fact that the content of this film, and what Cedric candidly talks about, is sort of personal, which makes me wonder why I am writing a blog post on it and embedding the film. Watch and see. If you have fallen into the enslaving trap of measuring your spiritual health, your skill and worth as a parent, your faithfulness as a Christian, by your kids' successes, and then the realities of being a sinful parent, raising sinful kids in a sinful world have kicked in (and I do mean 'kicked' here), then give this a watch. It reinforces the axiom that God makes us parents to keep us humble. Still more, if you have turned from grace and think that God owes you blessings because of your faithfulness in raising your kids, get ready for a shocker. And then turn and cling to Jesus and his grace; he alone is the Author and Perfecter of faith--in us and in our kids. Praise be to God!

TRWE ’11 -’12 Broadcast Station List
Fox stations:
New York - WNYW/WWOR (Fox O&O)
Los Angeles - KTTV/KCOP (Fox O&O)
Chicago - WFLD/WPWR (Fox O&O)
Philadelphia - WTXF (Fox O&O)
San Francisco - KTVU/KICU (FOX/Independent)
Dallas - KDFW/KDFI (Fox O&O)
Washington, DC - WTTG/WDCA (Fox O&O)
Houston - KRIV/KTXH (Fox O&O)
Phoenix - KSAZ/KUTP (Fox O&O)
Minneapolis - KMSP/WFTC (Fox O&O)
Orlando - WOFL/WRBW (Fox O&O)
Tucson - KMSB (FOX)
Portland, ME - WPFO (FOX)
Gainesville - WOGX (Fox O&O)

To see Cedric on other media outlets and cities, click here: http://realwinningedge.com/images/pdfs/trwe_airings.pdf

Cedric at the Children's Center, working with special-needs kids

I just watched this youtube clip of Cedric working with special-needs kids in Oklahoma City. I miss him so much and wish he were here, but God is using him there. So I should stop feeling that way, right? Right.

Cedric and Ryan's Lake Placid Time Trial, Monday, July 5, 2010

Video K2 warm up for time trial at Lake Placid

Lake Placid last days: hiking; time trial

Cedric is a bit committed to the Olympic Training Center, taking all his meals there, team meetings and activities he must attend, regatta logistics. All that to say, I had more time on my own than I had expected, and got some good writing time in, though I'd have rather spent it with Ceds. We did have some good times, though fairly short, where we were able to talk, read the Word, pray together. At one such time at a coffee shop we were reading in Isaiah 61 (the Romans of the OT), and a fellow came in, Art Summers, who began to tell us how the Lord rescued him from a rough life and prison, and transformed him by the gospel of grace. We watched the fireworks together from the shores of Mirror Lake, a bullfrog croaking through it all. I went for a hike in Henry's Woods, walked around Mirror Lake,reviewed 1-3 and worked on Ephesians chapter 4. Last morning, I went out on the chase boat and filmed Cedric and Ryan's time trial for the K2 1000m.

Cedric at LPI Canoe/Kayak International Regatta--Saturday afternoon

Quite an afternoon for the USA team, especially many of Alan Anderson's Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak team kids! Cedric got schooled a bit by several big boys, senior paddlers. He made a respectable showing  but will have to continue gaining speed, as he well knows. He takes home 1 gold and 1 bronze for the regatta, and good lessons learned and more experience gained. A beautiful day with lots of sun worshipers coming out for the race. Allison Morse finished with 2 golds and 1 bronze, a Bantam athlete, paddling up a division. Well done, Allison. Natalie, Katie, Bryce, Brin, many other GH paddlers significantly contributed to Team USA's success at LPI.

Cedric and Ryan at LPI Canoe/Kayak International Regatta--afternoon

What an afternoon of racing it's been! A few quick highlights: Mens 1000m K-1 final, Cedric came in a close 3rd, behind the 1st boat paddled by the #2 Canadian senior paddler. In their 1000m K-2 final, Cedric and Ryan, paddling against the big boys (all senior division-Olympics division), they finished first! 1 Bronze and 1 gold! It was an incredible race day so far. Pictures below:

With Cedric at Lake Placid OTC and International Canoe/Kayak Regatta

Lake Placid, New York is a beautiful place! Though a bit unseasonably chilly (38 degrees one morning) and rainy (like Western Washington), but not any more. This morning, the opening day of the Lake Placid International Flatwater Canoe and Kayak Regatta, is gorgeous. This is a critical race for my son Cedric because he and his K-2 partner Ryan Stock have an opportunity to bump up to the full USA Senior Team and World Cup racing in Poland, not an easy thing for two guys who are only months into being senior division athletes (18 and above).

It's been an interesting morning meeting all Cedric's kayak friends from around the country--and the world, and talking with his new senior coach, Sean Caven, as well as various parents and supporters. There's virtually no wind, water is flat and calm, wispy clouds linger in the hills (they call them mountains) surrounding Mirror Lake where the regatta is underway.  See pictures below of Cedric, Lake Placid and countryside, warming up, adjusting a borrowed boat (XXL--too big), warming up and off to the start, midway in the 1000m heat, and the 3rd place finish and an advance to finals. More later today!

Cedric Bond ESPN Featured athlete

My third child, Cedric Christian, graduates from Covenant High School this evening. By the merciful kindness of Christ, and the gifts of God's grace, he is a Washington Commended Scholar (52% of the CHS 2010 graduating class are academically in the top 10% of students in the state), and was the student body president. He was featured in a recent ESPN Rise article (at right) and featured in the USACK magazine.

A year ago he was featured in Sports Illustrated as the number one ranked junior sprint kayak racer in the USA. The above articles detail the challenges of transitioning from junior division to senior, where Olympic-bound competitors are usually well into their twenties. Cedric will compete in senior trials in June for a spot on the US senior national team to compete at World Cups in Poland, and World Championships in France. He has already qualified to compete in international regattas in Germany, Nova Scotia, and Lake Placid, NY.

Cedric Bond, in Sports Illustrated

My 17-year-old son, Cedric is in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated! Below is an on-line brief.

Cedric Bond
GIG HARBOR, WASH. > Flatwater Kayak
Cedric, a junior at Covenant High, is the nation's No. 1-ranked junior flatwater sprint kayaker after winning all four events he entered -- the 500- and 1,000-meter solo races and two-man events (with Luke Potts of Lanier, Ga.) -- at the junior world trials in Chula Vista, Calif. He will represent the U.S. at the junior world championships in Moscow.

All of which reminds me of what I wrote about sports in STAND FAST In the Way of Truth, from chapter 4, The Way to Fall:

Sports and pride

Moments before the 500 meter US Sprint Kayak Nationals final I asked one of my sons what his race strategy was. “I win, they lose,” he said with a grin. He’s a big Ronald Reagan fan and likes quoting Reagan’s Cold War strategy. Two days earlier he’d lost the 1000 meter sprint to a Hungarian-born paddler by 4,800ths of a second and was absolutely determined not to cut things so close. He did win the 500 and by a bigger margin. And then the monster pride rears his ugly head.

Competitive sports, young men, and pride are a union forged in hell. If you are an athlete—or the father of one--you must particularly beware of pride. Why? Because, as C. S. Lewis put it:

"Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. It is Pride—the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power. For, of course, power is what Pride really enjoys."

Most young men love competition. Men thrive on it. And we love power. We love being strong and being in control of people and situations. Many great things have been accomplished by powerful men straining to be the best. Consider General Bradley’s quip as George Paton led the 3rd Army in victory after victory, ever deeper into German-held territory in WW II: “Give George another headline and he’ll be good for another thirty miles.” It’s embarrassing, but we’re inclined to do more if we’re getting lots of credit for doing it. Feed our pride and we’ll conquer the world.

Unlike war, where pride might motivate a young man to do great deeds that benefit others, in sports young men are easily consumed with shameless self-interest. Listen to the boasting of professional athletes. Watch the swagger of the varsity basketball jock. See the jutted chin and hauteur of the All-American quarterback. Gaze in disgust at the unabashed self-conceit of the running back as he struts and preens in the end-zone. Listen to your teammates. Hear your own words. Look into your own heart. If you are a competitive athlete, beware of pride.

“If sports are supposed to build character,” wrote Brad Wolverton in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “recent evidence suggests that college athletics is falling down on the job.” He cites a study of the moral reasoning of 70,000 college students conducted over two decades. The result? “Athletes have significantly lower moral-reasoning skills than the general student population.” Moral reasoning—what the ancients called virtue--leads you to use your strength and skill in the interest of others. Competitive sports can flip things around. So impressed with your own athletic prowess, you sneer in disdain at others. Gradually, you begin to think of yourself as a worthy object of the most devout—and disgusting--self-worship.

Once on your knees before yourself, the absurdity of it all never occurs to you. How ridiculous for you to be puffed up over strengths and skills God ultimately gave you! But seeing your pride for what it is requires a changed heart.

Only a grateful heart will keep the nonsense of your pride in check. Just when you’re swelling up at your victory, offer thanksgiving that God gave you a healthy body, that he gave you the opportunity to develop your skill, and if you’re really good at it, the particular talent that sets your performance above the pack. Remind yourself that this is God’s doing.

Then brace yourself like a man. The devil slithers near. “Yes, but you’ve worked hard—harder than the rest,” he hisses in your ear. “You’re first on the water and last off every workout.” Stop your ears. The devil woos with “honest trifles.” Believe him and, as Shakespeare put it, he will “betray you in deepest consequence.”