A construction crew had been on the job site for about a week when one of their men was hurt and a new guy, named Jason, was hired. He was a broad-shouldered, powerful young man and a really good worker. But he was also very annoying.
Jason was always bragging that he was stronger than anyone else at the worksite and he especially made fun of Ralph, one of the older workmen. Finally, the old fella had enough. Continue reading
“I’m in trouble.”
Trouble.
It’s a word that stops us in our tracks. Gets our attention. And causes us to listen.
There are all kinds of trouble. Car trouble. Financial trouble. Relational trouble. Legal trouble. Marital trouble.
Some troubles are physical. Others are mental. Emotional. Or even spiritual. Continue reading
Filed under Adversity
Paul Faulkner once told a story about a man who was trying to share his faith in Jesus with a woman who was going through a tough time.
The woman told him that her life was falling apart. Nothing was working. Her daughter had been killed in an accident. Her husband was unfaithful to her. Now, she was about to lose her job.
“When the world crashes in on you…to whom do you turn?” asked the man. Continue reading
Filed under Adversity
Currently our country, and even the world, is concerned about the spread of the Coronavirus.
Every day we receive updates regarding its impact. Although the majority of the infected reside in China, worldwide there have been over 100,00 reported cases and over 3,400 deaths. In the US there have been 233 confirmed cases and 14 deaths.
The concern over this disease has put some folks in quarantine. Caused travel plans to be canceled. And literally left some folks stranded at sea. Continue reading
Filed under Adversity
In 1947 NYC bus driver William Cimillo became a “national hero” when he got in his bus one morning and kept on driving…all the way to Florida.
The 38-year-old Bronx native had been driving for almost 20 years and told a reporter later that “ I really got tired of it all, up and down every day, the same people, the same stops, nickels, dimes, transfers… Well I thought I’d try something different, a new route.” Continue reading
Last year after suffering a shocking and humiliating defeat in the first game of the NCAA basketball tournament, last night the University of Virginia Cavaliers won their first NCAA basketball championship.
“It was a painful gift,” said Cavaliers’ coach Tony Bennett as he reflected on being the first #1 seeded team to lose to a #16 seeded team in the 2018 tournament.
Last year the Cavaliers were the favorites to win the title. But the unthinkable happened. The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) blew out the UVA by 20 points.
How do you recover and return from such an epic fall? Continue reading
“Some days life is hard. Some days life is harder,” observed Wilson Adams yesterday morning in his lecture “Come to Jesus for Strength to Endure.”
Norma Jean and I are attending the Southside Lectures in Pasadena, Texas, near Houston, and being encouraged and uplifted by the theme “Come to Jesus.
Wilson’s lesson spoke to the common lot of humankind. Job expressed it this way: “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Everyone experiences trouble. Trial. Temptation. And adversity. That’s life. The key is not to look at it as something that happens to you. But to see it as an occasion to learn, grow and become stronger. Continue reading
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“God himself could not sink this ship,” replied a deck hand as Sylvia Caldwell marveled at the majesty of the great Titanic and wondered aloud if it really was unsinkable as advertised.
Talk about famous last words!
It was on this day 104 years ago, April 15, 1912, that the “Unsinkable Ship” sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg late on the 14th. 1517 people died in that disaster. Continue reading
Filed under Adversity
Some of the world’s greatest men and women have been saddled with disabilities and adversities but have managed to overcome them. I’m not sure of the origin of this piece, but it expresses this thought well.
Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty, and you have an Abraham Lincoln.
Subject him to bitter religious prejudice, and you have a Benjamin Disraeli. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes a Franklin D. Roosevelt. Burn him so severely in a schoolhouse fire that the doctors say he will never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham, who set a world’s record in 1934 for running a mile in 4 minutes, 6.7 seconds. Continue reading
Filed under Adversity
Job in the long ago said, “man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” How true it is. Trouble and tragedy is not limited to those that are in the national consciousness, whose names and faces are in the news. Continue reading
Filed under Adversity
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