“You armed me with strength for battle . . .”  – Psalm 18:39 

According to my airline pilot friends the periodic flight simulator training and testing they are required to undergo has less to do with the basics of normal takeoffs, landings, and flying their particular aircraft, and much more to do with responding to adverse situations.  Most experienced professional pilots can practically fly a plane blindfolded.  But what they must practice over and over is how to react when things go awry, of which there are endless possibilities.  More than anything else, and thankfully so, it is this preparedness that limits the number of mishaps to the small percentage it is.

Likewise, there are a lot of excellent golfers around, but only an elite few become PGA winners.  The difference between the amateurs and pros is not that the pros necessarily hit the ball longer and straighter and sink more putts, nor do the pros do a better job of avoiding trees and sand traps.  What the pros do better, thus setting them apart from the amateurs, is recovering from the tree hazards and sand traps – dealing with the adversity they encounter.  Same is true for football, baseball, soccer, basketball, or any other team sport.  Certainly the teams who play the best and make the fewest mistakes will have the advantage, but odds are the winners will also be determined by the teams who scramble out of tight situations most effectively.

In my youth I had dreams of a perfect life, perhaps you did too – perfect job, perfect home, perfect family, perfect everything.  But life doesn’t work that way, does it?  “In this world you will have trouble,” Jesus reminds us (John 16:33).  Adversity is inevitable.

For those of us who live in Texas, as well as many other parts of the U.S., we have certainly experienced our share of adversity this past week from what has been an unprecedented and devastating winter storm.  (Need I mention the extraordinary adversity over the past year?)  But what separates an abundant life from a tragic one is neither the absence of adversity nor the severity of it.  Rather, as with the difference between professionals and amateurs, it is how we deal with it when it occurs.  It has to do with “being armed . . . with strength for the battle,” as the Psalmist says, the source of which comes from leaning on the One who arms us with that very strength.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  – Romans 12:21 

In the late 1980’s the large Wall Street investment firm for which I worked acquired a smaller regional firm here in Texas.  Not surprisingly there were cultural differences between the two companies that inevitably led to feelings of mistrust toward those of us who were associated with the large acquiring firm.  One longtime employee from the company we acquired, an older gentleman, was convinced that his life had been taken over by some big “evil empire” out to destroy his way of conducting business and his livelihood.  Nothing, of course, could have been further from the truth.

For several months it was bumpy ride.  The man complained and argued about everything.  Nothing we did seemed to suit him.  While we could have been argumentative and combative in return, instead we chose to shower the man with kindness, sometimes having to grit our teeth to do so.  Finally, he began to calm down and accept us, and over time we actually grew to become really good friends.

It has been said that the best way to get rid of enemies is to turn them into friends.  Easier said than done, but the secret ingredient is forgiveness – both forgiving the other person when he or she errs, as well as admitting our own faults and begging the other’s forgiveness.  It was through this very process that we were able to turn this man’s mistrust into trust and his bitterness into friendship.

Forgiveness involves both attitudes and actions.  That is, we may not always “feel” forgiving toward someone, but we can still respond with actions such as lending a helping hand, sending a gift, or smiling at him or her even if we must grit our teeth in the process.  Often what we will discover is that right actions lead to right feelings.

That is exactly what occurred between the gentleman and us following that corporate merger.  Right actions eventually led to right feelings, mutual trust and respect.  It is about this that the Apostle Paul offers great wisdom, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  It works!

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.”  – Psalm 40:1 

There’s an old joke about a man praying to God.  “God?” he asked.  “Yes?” the Lord replied.  “Can I ask a question?”  “Of course, go right ahead,” God said.  “God, what is a million years to you?” the man asked.  “Why, a million years to me is only a second,” God answered.  “Hmm,” the man wondered.  Then he asked, “God, what is a million dollars worth to you?”  To which God answered, “A million dollars to me is as a penny.”  The man thought for a moment.  “God,” he asked, “can I have a penny?”  “Sure!” God replied.  “Just a second.”

I’ve never had a big issue with God’s willingness to hear my pleas, nor his assurance to deliver on his promises.  My problem has always been trusting his timing.  In fact, the biggest blunders I’ve made in my life have almost all been the result of impatience.  Instead of waiting patiently for the Lord, I tend to jump the gun and take matters into my own hands, which usually turns out to be a disaster, like the time I became overly anxious for a promotion in my career and jumped the gun, taking another position that instead of advancing my career almost wrecked it.

Waiting patiently for the Lord, however, does not mean putting our lives in neutral and wandering aimlessly wishing something would happen.  No, it is about knowing something will happen, just not the exact timing, and in the meantime to continue to prepare for when the time does come.

A bewildered young man once entered the seating area of a train station where he noticed a large sign on the wall.  “WAITING ROOM – NO LOITERING,” it said.  Isn’t that a contradiction, he thought?  Except the waiting room is for those who are prepared, have a ticket, know where they’re going, expecting the train to eventually show up; whereas loiterers have no ticket, no destination, wandering aimlessly with no expectation.  The young man had shown up prepared, with a fully paid ticket to a specific destination, with a sense of certainty the train would eventually show up and take him there.

Older and wiser now – and after many blunders – the words of the Psalmist are slowly starting to sink in, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.”

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  – 2 Corinthians 12:10 

If you’ve ever seen the 1986 movie “Hoosiers”, about a small-town high school basketball team, you might recall there was a rather obscure character in the story by the name of Ollie McLellan.  The story takes place in a tiny community in rural Indiana back in the early 1950’s where Coach Norman Dale (played by Gene Hackman) was hired to coach the team.  Despite much resistance within the community to his unusual coaching style, Coach Dale nevertheless succeeded in taking the team all the way to the state championship where they defeated one of the largest high school teams in the state.

There is a scene early in the movie where on Coach Dale’s first day on the job he is trying to get acquainted with the ragtag group of players on the team, of which there were only seven.  Going around he asked each one his name and what position he played.  When he got to Ollie, a clumsy little guy, Ollie responded that he was really the team’s manager, he only suited up for practice and to warm the bench during the games.  “I’m too short,” he explained, “I ain’t no good,” as his teammates chuckled.

It has been said that the one test of a person’s strength is that person’s knowledge of his or her weakness.  I would add that it is also a test of a person’s strength that the person be willing to admit his or her weakness.  Ollie’s strength, as it turned out, was much more than taking care of the team’s uniforms and warming the bench; his real strength was in admitting, “I’m too short, I ain’t no good.”  The test came at the very end of one of the critical games after someone fouled out leaving only four players on the floor.  In goes Ollie, the only sub, who immediately got fouled.  Miraculously Ollie sunk his free-throw to win the game, advancing them to the state tournament.  It was his moment of glory.

Being one of my all-time favorite movies, I’ve watched “Hoosiers” dozens of times over the years, including recently.  But only in recent years have I come to fully appreciate Ollie and his admission that “I’m too short, I ain’t no good.”  By doing so he set an example of the Apostle Paul’s teaching, “For when I am weak, then I am strong,” for when we admit we are weak we are allowing space for God to fill in our weakness with His power, making us stronger than we could ever imagine to be on our own.  That’s what happened with Ollie McLellan, which eventually led to his moment of glory.

“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  – Mark 10:31 

“The last in line doesn’t ever make the team / Doesn’t get a second chance / Doesn’t find a field of dreams / The last in line doesn’t get a special prize / Doesn’t ever hear his name / You don’t look him in the eyes / Nobody wants to be the last in line.”  (Song lyrics by songwriter and singer Billy Crockett, “The Last in Line”) 

No one likes to be last in line, or last at anything for that matter.  We learn that at a young age, in simple games, on the playground, in the classroom, from a game of Old Maid or checkers.  We want to win the game, be the fastest in the race, the top student in the class.  It’s a great thing the competitive spirit, the desire to achieve, to be the best, to come in first, to win the prize.  Such desires inspire us to perform at our best and to work at becoming even better.  It is this spirit that drives achievement, success, innovative ideas, inventions, better and more efficient ways of doing things, all of which can make the world a better place.  So, being first in line is something we should all aim for, as long as we don’t forget those who are last in line.

My good friend Tommy was that kind of person, a high achiever, brilliant businessman and corporate leader, a fierce competitor whose wealth grew, as you can imagine, to be fairly substantial.   Tommy and I became friends serving on a mission team for several years making annual excursions to Honduras where we worked among the poorest of the poor.  Tommy was the kind of guy who would always volunteer for the most backbreaking jobs like laying bricks or pouring concrete from a heavy wheelbarrow.  But the thing I remember most about Tommy was how at the end of the day before we left the worksite, he would take off his shoes, clean them up, then give them away to someone who needed them more than he did, after which he would quietly walk away – barefoot.  Tommy was a winner, but he never forgot those who were last in line.

When Tommy passed away a few years ago, I had this image of him stepping into God’s Kingdom exactly the way he left Honduras – barefoot.  But instead of being first in line he stepped back a few spaces to help someone else get ahead, someone who just happened to be wearing the shoes he had given away. “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  And that’s just as it should be.