Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

When Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal last Tuesday for the pair's figure skating finals there was quite an outcry. Many said Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were robbed. Sale and Pelletier skated a seemingly flawless performance while the Russians had obvious poor landings, evident to even the untrained eye. This raised such a controversy that even the International Skating Union (ISU) investigated and they usually just say, "Tough cookies!" and move along.

Figure skating and controversy seem to go hand in hand. In 1992, American Paul Wylie lost to a Russian even though his performance had glitches and Wylie's did not. In 1994, American Nancy Kerrigan lost to Oksana Baiul even though she had trouble with technical elements and Kerrigan did not.

The pressure now seems to be on French judge, Marie Reine Le Gougne, who some feel might have been pressured into voting for the Russians in pair figure skating so the Russians would vote for the French in ice dancing. My question is why single out Le Gougne? The vote was 5 to 4 in favor of the Russians. The Russian, Chinese, Polish, Ukranian, and French judges voted for them. The German, Japanese, U.S., and Canadian judges voted for the Canadians. Why not question all the other judges who voted for the Russians? Could it be that it was taken for granted that the "Red" block of judges would automatically vote for the Russians? Don't you just love politics? It permeates every aspect of our lives.

There is a major life lesson here. It is not always the team who skates a flawless performance that wins. It is not always the most talented person who becomes famous. It is not the most qualified person who gets the job. It's not always the best player who makes the team. It's not necessarily the person who will do the best for the country who gets elected. Humanly speaking, we are all judged by imperfect judges on a daily basis who many times hold our fate in their hands. And sometimes the judge just isn't interested in our point of view. He's already made a ruling so don't confuse him with the facts.

However there is a judge we can trust who holds our fate in his hands. He's not politically motivated. He isn't French, Canadian, or Russian. He listens and although he may not always give us what we want, he has our best interest at heart. God!

II Samuel 24 gives an account of a time when David went against the wishes of the Lord. When this was pointed out to David, he admitted his sin, "I have sinned greatly." (v. 10) Because of this sin God gave him three choices as a penalty for what he had done. David was a King and all three choices would affect those he ruled which shows that what we do has consequences for others. (v. 13) Choice one was seven years of famine. Choice two was for he and his military to flee three months while enemies pursued them. Choice three was three days' pestilence in the land. Which choice do you think he should have made? What would you have done? What did he do?

David was a wise man. He asked God to make this decision for him. "Let us fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great and let me not fall into the hands of man." (II Samuel 24:14) I won't tell you which one of the three God chose. You can look that up if you're interested. It might not have been the one you or I would choose, but then we're not God. We don't know everything. God does. We don't know how one of those decisions might have led to a far worse outcome in the long run. God knew. The point is that David trusted God to do what was best for him and for his people. Why? Because God KNOWS what's best for us and "His mercies are great."

God is a righteous judge. Man is not. There are times when you don't have to have a gold medal to be judged a winner by the world. But it looks like Canadians, Jamie and David, will be taking home some gold and sharing the first place honors with the Russians after all. But remember this: You don't have to have a gold medal to be judged a winner by God.

©February 2002

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