by Dr. Cecil Clements (5th June 2012)
I was looking at a 2-liner that said, ‘Winners never quit and quitters never win’, or ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’. We live in tough times; there’s so much upheaval – things seem to want to overpower us. So often we feel powerless to do what needs to be done.
I was talking to somebody this morning who pointed out that the economy in India is slowing down and they were wondering what was happening. It was interesting the perception that people in the US have and how they were following things in India. We were talking about the kind of infrastructure that was needed to back the growth potential that we’ve been having.
Musing on that, I thought that this is where we ought to pull up our socks and say, “Ok, we’re going to push ahead; we’re going to meet what needs to be met in terms of the potential that we have.
I remember just about a year back, going down what is called ‘The Avenue of the Gods’ in Colorado Springs and how I saw one company that had closed down. 6000 employees without a job and I was seeing the same thing everywhere. How difficult it has been! People are holding on to jobs, not wanting to let go.
We realize that we live in times of uncertainty. Jim Collins is the author of some great books, ‘Good To Great’ and ‘Built to Last’ to name a few. When asked what we can expect in the next 30 years or so, he said, “Uncertainty, chaos, turbulence and risk. These are the 4 things that are going to be characteristics of the next 30 years.” He is looking at that at a macro level – all across the world.
But if we look at it at a micro level, these things are in our world. We know that there is uncertainty, we are in a chaotic situation, there’s turbulence, there’s risk. That’s our world for each one of us too.
The question that each one of us must ask ourselves: if that is reality, how do we walk through it? How do we order our lives in this situation?
There’s a passage from the Bible that talks about the time when the followers of Jesus had to cross over and go to the other side of the sea. As they were crossing, a huge storm came and waves began to pour into the boat and it threatened to sink. Jesus was at the stern, His head on a pillow, sleeping. Naturally they roused Him saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we are going to drown?” He just stood up and told the sea to quiet down. The wind ran out of breath, the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus scolded his disciples saying, “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” They were in such absolute awe. They wondered who was this that even the wind and the waves obeyed Him.
You look at this incident of Jesus and you see that, with all the uncertainty around Him, storms beating down, waves in an uproar, Jesus was sleeping in the boat. That’s the kind of peace that we must have in the storms of life that are all around us – to be able to be unperturbed, not to let things dictate what it is that we must do, but to be able to have faith that we will go through this situation.
I want to end with this: in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of chaotic situations, there must be an anchor that is strong for each one of us. That anchor has to be somebody much more infinitely powerful, much wiser than we can ever be. God offers that to us. And I want to offer Him to you this morning. If you’re going through a difficult situation, maybe today you can say, “Lord, I just want to know that there is some strength, some wisdom that I can have in the midst of all of this. I pray that for each one of you.
God Bless Us All.
I was looking at a 2-liner that said, ‘Winners never quit and quitters never win’, or ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’. We live in tough times; there’s so much upheaval – things seem to want to overpower us. So often we feel powerless to do what needs to be done.
I was talking to somebody this morning who pointed out that the economy in India is slowing down and they were wondering what was happening. It was interesting the perception that people in the US have and how they were following things in India. We were talking about the kind of infrastructure that was needed to back the growth potential that we’ve been having.
Musing on that, I thought that this is where we ought to pull up our socks and say, “Ok, we’re going to push ahead; we’re going to meet what needs to be met in terms of the potential that we have.
I remember just about a year back, going down what is called ‘The Avenue of the Gods’ in Colorado Springs and how I saw one company that had closed down. 6000 employees without a job and I was seeing the same thing everywhere. How difficult it has been! People are holding on to jobs, not wanting to let go.
We realize that we live in times of uncertainty. Jim Collins is the author of some great books, ‘Good To Great’ and ‘Built to Last’ to name a few. When asked what we can expect in the next 30 years or so, he said, “Uncertainty, chaos, turbulence and risk. These are the 4 things that are going to be characteristics of the next 30 years.” He is looking at that at a macro level – all across the world.
But if we look at it at a micro level, these things are in our world. We know that there is uncertainty, we are in a chaotic situation, there’s turbulence, there’s risk. That’s our world for each one of us too.
The question that each one of us must ask ourselves: if that is reality, how do we walk through it? How do we order our lives in this situation?
There’s a passage from the Bible that talks about the time when the followers of Jesus had to cross over and go to the other side of the sea. As they were crossing, a huge storm came and waves began to pour into the boat and it threatened to sink. Jesus was at the stern, His head on a pillow, sleeping. Naturally they roused Him saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we are going to drown?” He just stood up and told the sea to quiet down. The wind ran out of breath, the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus scolded his disciples saying, “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” They were in such absolute awe. They wondered who was this that even the wind and the waves obeyed Him.
You look at this incident of Jesus and you see that, with all the uncertainty around Him, storms beating down, waves in an uproar, Jesus was sleeping in the boat. That’s the kind of peace that we must have in the storms of life that are all around us – to be able to be unperturbed, not to let things dictate what it is that we must do, but to be able to have faith that we will go through this situation.
I want to end with this: in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of chaotic situations, there must be an anchor that is strong for each one of us. That anchor has to be somebody much more infinitely powerful, much wiser than we can ever be. God offers that to us. And I want to offer Him to you this morning. If you’re going through a difficult situation, maybe today you can say, “Lord, I just want to know that there is some strength, some wisdom that I can have in the midst of all of this. I pray that for each one of you.
God Bless Us All.
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