It S Not The Winning That Counts

From Ancient Greece to the Beijing Olympics, sport has delivered thrilling victories and gut-wrenching defeats, but moments of good sportsmanship are increasingly rare. Is chivalry dead? Or have rumours of its demise been exaggerated? Whether displayed by an Australian sculler or an Egyptian judoka, sportsmanship has come in many guises. It's Not the Winning that Counts celebrates the Boy's Own heroism of yachtsman Pete Goss's mercy dash across the Southern Ocean to rescue a capsized French rival; recalls the high ideals of the gentleman-amateurs of the Corinthian Football Club; salutes Freddie Flintoff, hero of the 2005 Ashes, commiserating with an opponent before celebrating with team-mates; and takes its hat off to Jack Nicklaus, conceding a two-foot putt on the final green of the 1969 Ryder Cup. At its best, sportsmanship has reverberated around the world - from German athlete Lutz Long publicly befriending the black American runner Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics to Russian chess player Boris Spassky conducting himself impeccably during his Cold War showdown with Bobby Fischer.

Sport has always delivered thrilling victories and gut-wrenching defeats, but moments of good sportsmanship are increasingly rare. It's Not the Winning that Counts celebrates, among others, the football team who kicked their penalties wide because they refused to believe their opponents would foul them, the round-the-world yachtsman who turned back to rescue a rival; the tennis player (Jimmy Connors!) who deliberately double faulted in a Grand Slam final to cancel out line calls that had gone against his opponent. In the era of the dive, the head butt and the professional foul, Max Davidson takes a roll call of the white knights of sport, from David Beckham to Freddie Flintoff, Jesse Owens to Mohammed Ali.

This book is about the power of God. God can intercede in any life, and turn it all the way around, regardless of the situation. The power of God that is working in our world today is sometimes overlooked because of all of the poverty, dysfunctional families, and violence we see every day. Yet, we know God moves with a hand of mercy and a heart of love, and brings about miraculous changes in the lives of His people. Faith in God is one of the major factors of this book, such as the ability to rise above ones circumstances and achieve God given goals to break the strongholds of life that have enslaved so many; to really believe that God has the power to work things out according to His way and to His will, and that all things work together to the glory of God to those who put their faith and trust in Him; to gain a deeper knowledge of God as a result of the need to depend upon Him; and to never to give up but to keep on reaching and pressing on. I invite you to visit the Bethlehem Baptist Church website, www.bbc4christ.org, to read Pastors Daily Devotions which is distributed quarterly.

Basing his study on some two-hundred-and-fifty German novels, memoirs, fictionalized histories, and films (including Das Boot), Michael Hadley examines the popular image of the German submarine and weighs the values, purposes, and perceptions of German writers and film makers. He considers the idea of the submarine as a war-winning weapon and the exploits of the "band of brothers" who made up the U-boat crews. He also describes the perceptions of the German public about the role of the U-boat in the war effort and the hopes that it carried for victory in two world wars against the Allied forces. Analysed in context, the U-boat emerges as a central factor and metaphor in Germany's ongoing struggle with its political and military past. In Count Not the Dead Hadley explores the complex relationships between political reality and cultural myth, and draws important conclusions about the way in which Germans have interpreted their past and how present concerns change these views.

What would you do if you could create your own reality? Are the solitude and financial consequences of professional unemployment, underemployment or undetermined employment ravaging your mind, body and soul? Have you moved beyond the resignation of the corporate mold and identification by number? Does the inability of our leaders in Washington to do anything substantive to aid your situation enrage you? If the answer is yes to any of these questions it is time to stand and be counted. It is time to shamelessly pursue individual success and support your own dreams, goals and objectives. It is time to plant your own seeds and harvest your greatness. You need the ability to absorb exogenous shocks to your career and therefore to your life to achieve quantifiable results. The need to enhance ones decision making skills, physical abilities and emotional compass are needed to fight this battle. We can no longer wait for the end to gridlock in Washington to help us. It will never happen. Brothers and sisters, who are unemployed/underemployed/ employment threatened, this is a call to individual action. It is time to stand and be counted. Meet your new boss. You!