A Matter of Focus
Classmates.com is a huge website that lets long lost friends find each other. I guess before you sign up you have to decide if you really want to find each other. The other day I read the story of a lady who bumped into an old friend. While waiting for her first appointment in the reception room of a new dentist, she noticed his certificate, which had his full name. Suddenly, she remembered that a tall, handsome boy with the same name had been in her high school class some 30 years earlier. As soon as she saw him she discarded any such possibility. She was sure that the balding, grey-haired dentist with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been her classmate. After he had examined her teeth, she asked him if he had attended the local high school. “Yes,” he replied. “When did you graduate?” she asked. He replied, “In 1971. Why?” “You were in my class!” she exclaimed. He looked at her closely and then asked, “What did you teach?”
Ouch!
There is a part of this story that I love. I love people who can enjoy life enough that they don’t feel as old as they really are. If we were more like these two, we would do better in life. There are three qualities about these two old friends that I would like to have:
1. They did not focus on what they didn’t have.
2. They did not focus on the negatives.
3. They did not see obstacles to a good life.
Okay so they didn’t have youth. So what? They had the wisdom that comes with a lifetime of living. Maybe one of them didn’t have hair, but he had an education that caused others to call him Doctor. One of them was at a dentist, but at least she had teeth that the dentist could work on.
So many times when God closes one door for us, we stare at it and grieve so long that we never see the two doors that God has opened. I love God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11. “’I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” You must believe that God has good plans for you. Your joy depends on it!
The Two Football Man
If you ask any Alabama football fan who the greatest coach of all time is,
they will answer, “Bear Bryant.” Bear Bryant did have great success as
a coach. Coach Bryant used to have a drill designed to show him who
really had what it takes to be a great football player. He would get
all 120 of his players into one end zone and then tell them (I’m
paraphrasing here), “Boys, in the other end zone I have placed five
footballs. I want each one of you to bring me one.”
I confess that I would like to have seen that drill. The chaos that
ensued must have been amazing. One year he pulled this drill and he had
a player named Lee Roy Jordan. Lee Roy was a great football player. He
brought the coach two footballs! I can’t even imagine someone that
fast, strong, or talented. He had the determination to be a “Two
Football Man.” He did not look for an excuse, he looked for a football!
In life there are those who get things done and there are those who
make excuses. Solomon said, “The lazy man says, ‘There is a lion
outside. I shall be slain in the streets.’” (Proverbs 22:13). Of course
there is no lion outside, but when someone does not want to work, they
always can find an excuse. Ben Franklin wisely said, “He that is good
for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
Of course excuse makers usually do not think they are making
excuses. They think they are telling you reasons. People who achieve
things in life, people who get things done realize that giving in to
excuses under the guise of reasons will always stop you from achieving
your goals.
I never had the speed to be a two football person on the football
field, but there are other areas of life where the principle of two
footballs can work in my life. “I’m tired. I want to rest. I deserve a
break. It is someone else’s turn to do the work.” None of these excuses
get in the way of a two football man or woman.
I do realize that sometimes there really are reasons, but make sure
you are not just settling for an excuse. Go get that second football.
Lonnie Davis
The Mouse and the Elephant
There once was a little mouse who had to take a long and arduous journey. As the day wore on the little mouse grew tired and began looking for some easier way to complete the trip. By and by an elephant came along and gave the little mouse a ride on his massive back. Hour after hour the mouse rode on the back of the elephant. The mouse was filled with joy to see how much distance he was able to cover while riding on the back of an elephant. Finally they came to a narrow bridge. The elephant paused and then passed over the bridge. With each step the elephant took the bridge shook. When safe on the other side, the little mouse told the elephant, “We really shook that bridge.”
Gideon was called by God to deliver Israel from their enemies. Gideon protested, “How can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” God listens to his fears and then says, “But I will be with you.” (Judges 6:14-16). Gideon did not know it, but God did not need him to defeat the enemy. God only wanted him to go along for the ride. The victory was assured.
You and I face our own difficult journeys. We go through minefields, we cross shaking bridges, and pass through the valley of the shadow of death. As Christians while going through all of these places, we too are traveling on the strength of someone else. Paul said, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13). Jesus promised, “I will be with you always.” (Matthew 28:20).
When we face scary life passages, we must remember that we are merely a mouse riding on the back of One who is able to shake the bridge. When we are eventually safe on the other side of the shaking bridges of life, we may be tempted to say, “We really shook that bridge,” but we must remember that it was not us, but Him who shook the bridge.
Lonnie Davis