Got Cups?

GOT CUPS? If so, you’ve got a sport . . . seriously.

The sport of cup stacking is growing around the world. More than one million kids compete in this activity that demands lightning-fast reflexes and precise hand-eye coordination.

Still don’t think it’s a sport? Well, just imagine sitting in front of 12 specially designed plastic cups. You’ve got a stack of three, a stack of six, and another stack of three. You start by building a pyramid of three cups, then of six cups, and another of three cups. Then you tear them all down. Next, you up-stack two pyramids of six cups each. After tearing those down, you build a ten-cup pyramid with a cup on each side. Finally, you down-stack the pyramid and end up with the cups in the same way you started. Sounds easy, right?

Now try doing that in 7.43 seconds. Seems impossible, but a teenage girl from Denver, Colorado, did it. Emily Fox set the world record at the 2002 Rocky Mountain Cup Stacking Championships. And when her hands start moving you think she’s on fast-forward.

Fox says stacking cups has helped her in more ways than just developing quick hands—which also help her in playing basketball. You see, cup stacking has a couple of key rules.

No. 1: You finish what you start.

No. 2: You fix your fumbles.

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POINT Life, just like cup stacking, is filled with fumbles. Things don’t always go your way. (Maybe you’ve noticed that?) Sometimes you mess up and everything seems to fall apart—especially when you’re too busy or trying to go too fast.

If you fail to fix your mistakes in cup stacking, your time doesn’t count. The sport demands perfection. And when it’s not done perfectly, you must fix it before it counts.

God’s the same way. To live with him in heaven, we have to be perfect. Of course, we never will be. We’re human. Our lives are filled with fumbles. The cool part is that God fixes our fumbles when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

GOAL! Think about some of the ways you consistently mess up. Do you ever lie, act disrespectfully to your parents, or cheat on assignments? You can decide to fix your fumbles. Ask Jesus for forgiveness, and then ask the person you wronged to forgive you as well.