Lifted Out of Context

Buddy Norman's scout troop has come to the ski slopes to earn their skiing badges, and Mr. Whittaker offers the boys a chance to try a more advanced run. Buddy is terrified. In his imagination he is a member of the "Revengers," a superhero team chasing the villain Evil Opticus down the mountain, but while his teammates have super powers, imaginary Buddy can only offer, "And me, Buddy, I have pretty good grades." When his turn at the ski lift comes, real-life Buddy makes an excuse about waxing his skis and hides in the lodge bathroom until the trip is over.

Later, Buddy confesses the whole thing to his friend Beezee. He feels like fighting fear is a game of whack-a-mole; every time he conquers one fear, another pops up. Beezee, a daring skateboarder, shows him the Bible verse painted on the bottom of her skateboard, Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." She says it reminds her that God always has her back, whether she is facing a stunt or a geography test.

Beezee soon needs that confidence herself. Their friend Horus has built an enormous, bizarre skateboard ramp in McAlister Park for his physics class project. He found a rare book in the library archives, a do-it-yourself stunt guide written by Beezee's hero, skateboarding legend Tony Falcon, who turns out to have a PhD in physics. According to the book's calculations, the ramp should let a skater pull off Tony Falcon's legendary 720 flip spin, a trick no one else has ever come close to landing. Beezee eagerly agrees to be the test rider.

Meanwhile, Buddy spends the night hunting for encouraging Bible verses and daydreaming about soaring on eagle wings, and completely forgets to study for a big test. When the test lands on his desk, he panics, then remembers Beezee's verse and asks God to simply give him the answers. In his daydream, he rescues the Revengers by confidently answering a computer's security questions; in real life, he breezes through the test and turns it in early, sure that God strengthened his mind. He even tells Jay Smouse about his shortcut, and Jay is annoyed he wasted a whole five minutes studying.

Things start to unravel on both fronts. Beezee crashes over and over on the ramp, scraping her elbows, and when Horus checks the math, Professor Meltsner confirms the stunt is impossible. Beezee refuses to believe her hero could be wrong, insisting that skateboarding is an art, not a science, and secretly decides to attempt the flip spin on her own. Meanwhile Jay ambushes Buddy from a bush, furious: he tried claiming the "all things" verse to ask Zoe to a movie and couldn't do it. "I chickened out of a chicken movie!" he wails. Worse, the test results are posted, and Buddy scored a zero. He didn't even spell his own name right.

Back at the ski slopes, Buddy bravely attempts the advanced run and wipes out repeatedly. Confused and discouraged, he asks Mr. Whittaker why the Bible would say he can do something when he clearly can't. Whit gently explains that understanding a verse requires understanding its context, just as ski gear only works when used the right way; you wouldn't wear a helmet to keep your hands warm. The Bible is many books written by many people, and pulling one verse out on its own can twist its meaning. When Buddy laments that he is going backwards by being afraid again, Whit disagrees: "You think you're going backwards, but I think you're actually going deeper." He promises Buddy an Imagination Station adventure about the Apostle Paul, who wrote Philippians, and lets Buddy finish his skiing badge on a slope that suits his level.

At the park, Beezee stands at the top of the ramp, ready to skate into history, when Horus comes running with news. His copy of Tony Falcon's book was missing pages, and the complete copy reveals a warning printed right before the ramp plans: the ramps are only for exploring theoretical physics equations and should never be attempted in real life. Tony Falcon's math wasn't wrong; the ramp was never meant to be ridden, and the flip spin took him years of practice and dedication to perfect. Horus, who refuses to move out of Beezee's path until she comes down and reads it, apologizes for misleading her and admits she was right all along: skateboarding really is more art than science.

At Whit's End, Whit invites Beezee and Horus to join Buddy in the Imagination Station to see Paul's life and learn what Philippians 4:13 truly means in context. Just then a firefighter arrives with news that Horus's ramp has caught fire, though on the bright side, they put it out in half the time as his last one.