The first recorded piece of human art is believed to be a tiny, 30,000-year-old sculpture of a goddess found in Australia (called the Venus of Willendorf). The extraordinary Lascaux caves in southern France give us a record of Stone Age man (15,000 years ago) telling of his hunting exploits in remarkable cave drawings. From these beginnings, the story of human art has continued to the present.

Every society tells its stories in the art mediums available to them, and the modern age is no different. In fact, the ability of modern man to tell his stories through electronic means (moving pictures, digital augmentation, music, etc.) is entirely new in human history but gives stories an emotional power beyond any other age:

That is certainly the case with the story you will see in the attached video. Here, Josh Groban’s incredibly inspirational, You Raise Me Up, accompanies the video, which also contains a few inserted graphics that give helpful details behind the story.

Since the story tells itself, I’ve chosen not to add any commentary. If you have five minutes, this story will lift your soul.

I might add that if you can watch it all the way through without shedding a tear, you are a much stronger person than I!

The performance  (duration, 4:56)

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Soul Work

St. Paul used the image of racers in the stadium (1 Corinthians 9:24-25) to inspire the early Christian communities – who knew well the Olympics in the ancient world – to persevere in the Christian life.

Life is hard. It’s not a race against other people. It’s a competition against ourselves and the enemies of the human race: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We fall constantly. Sometimes we pick ourselves up and proceed under our own steam promising to do better the next time. At other times we need help to get up.

At all times our Heavenly Father is with us. We underestimate the intensity of His love for us and His desire that we run the race of this life to the finish line of Life on high.

Take a moment to pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly today.

Remind yourself of the eternal presence of the Heavenly Father in your life who, like Derek Redmond’s father, walks with you to the very end.