Have you noticed that some people can’t seem to win, no matter what they do? It’s like one lady I heard about. True story. In 1957 Richie Ashburn, center fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, swung and hit a foul ball that went into the stands and hit a spectator named Alice Roth. As she was being taken away on a stretcher, Ashburn slammed another foul ball . . . and hit her again. (1) Poor Alice. I guess it just wasn’t her day. I’ve had days like that, haven’t you? I would guess we all have.
Pastor Alan Carr tells about an advertisement that once appeared in the newspapers in New York City. The ad was sponsored by the Hayden planetarium. It was an invitation for anyone who would like to make the first journey to another planet to submit an application. Within a matter of days, over 18,000 people applied. These applications were then given to a panel of psychologists, who upon reviewing them concluded that the vast majority of those who had applied wanted to start a new life on another planet because they were so discouraged by life on this one. (2)
I wonder if anyone here today can relate to that? Are you so discouraged with life that you would like to go somewhere even another planet and make a new start?
The loveable loser Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoons often felt that way. Once he told Linus, “Sometimes I feel like I want to run away from everything.”
Overhearing the conversation, Snoopy reflects, “I remember having that feeling once when I was at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. I climbed over the fence . . . but I was still in the world!” That’s the problem with running away from your problems, isn’t it? You are still in the world. And your problems seem to always follow you. And, of course, the real problem is that you are still you.
St. Paul had as many problems as anyone and more than most people. He never had the comforts of family life. He spent years traveling under the most primitive conditions. He was persecuted, shipwrecked, beaten, thrown in prison and probably martyred. He made enormous sacrifices for the cause of Christ and yet he was constantly criticized by people both inside as well as outside of the early church. And yet he never seemed to get discouraged.
He was like the guy Larry Olsen cites in his book, Outdoor Survival Skills. According to Olsen this guy had been out of food and water for days. His lips were parched and bleeding. His tongue was swollen. His legs were bruised and his feet were raw. Some of his bones were almost peeking through his skin as he dragged himself across the desert. He was scraped from the rocks and the blowing sand had scoured his back and arms. He was insect bitten and tormented by cactus needles. His skin was blistered by the merciless sun. As he crawled over a little rise, he propped himself up on one bleeding elbow, looked across the burning wasteland and said, ‘You know, a few days like this and I might get discouraged.’” (3)
St. Paul could relate to that and yet St. Paul never got discouraged, never gave up, never felt sorry for himself. Why? Because he had an enormous faith in God. Listen as he writes in today’s lesson from 2 Corinthians 4: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands . . .”
What a magnificent statement of faith. II Corinthians is an intensely personal letter written by Paul in response to the reports he had received from Titus about the Corinthians’ response to his first letter. Though many in Corinth had repented of some of the behavior that had Paul so concerned, there were some false teachers who tried to undermine Paul’s efforts and sought to discredit his ministry. Paul shared his heartfelt love for the church and some of the trials and sufferings he had endured for the sake of Christ. The passage we are looking at today gives some insight into Paul’s ability to handle the setbacks that were a major part of his life.
What empowered Paul to endure in the face of his suffering? It was his immovable faith in God. Paul was an amazing man. Most of us, if we had experienced all the setbacks that Paul experienced, would be whining and complaining for all the world to hear.
We would be like Tevye in the wonderful Broadway musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye kept up a running dialogue with God, giving God credit for the good things that happened to him but also lamenting everything that went wrong.
In one scene his horse goes lame. There Tevye sits dejected by the side of the road with his lame horse. “I can understand it,” Tevye says to God, “when you punish me when I am bad; or my wife because she talks too much; or my daughter when she wants to go off and marry a Gentile, but . . . What have you got against my horse?!” (4)
Some of us can identify with Tevye, can’t we? Be honest about it. Paul wasn’t like that, however. No matter what happened to Paul, he seemed to be able to roll with the punches, as we say. He was able to go with the flow. How? Paul had an amazing faith in God. It’s the kind of faith you and I need. People who have faith when battling against overwhelming odds inspire the rest of us.
I’ve mentioned before the inspirational former basketball coach at North Carolina State University, Jim Valvano. Sports fans remember him simply as Jimmy V. Valvano was diagnosed with a terminal cancer in June 1992. Just eight weeks before he died he gave a speech for the ESPY Awards presented by ESPN. You can find that speech on YouTube. It’s an amazing speech. While accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award, Valvano announced the creation of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. He announced that the foundation’s motto would be, “Don’t Give Up . . . Don’t Ever Give Up.”
That was certainly true of this coaching legend. During his speech the teleprompter stated that he had 30 seconds left. Valvano looked at the teleprompter and then at the crowd and he said, “They got that screen up there flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen. I got tumors all over my body and I’m worried about some guy in the back going 30 seconds.” His speech included this statement:
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
Valvano’s memorable ESPY acceptance speech became legendary. He closed by saying: “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all.” (5) He could have been rephrasing St. Paul’s words, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day . . . For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands . . .” Here’s something we need to see: Paul’s confidence was founded on the resurrection of Christ. Because he knew Christ is alive, he knew life conquers death, hope conquers despair, and love conquers hate. This is an attitude that we need when we are tempted to give up on life. It is the sure hope that because Christ lives, tomorrow will be better than today.
The well-known Bible student and preacher Vance Havner once noted that Christian experience has three levels. (6) First there are “mountaintop days.” These are days when everything is going well and the world looks bright. We are grateful for these mountaintop days, but truthfully they do not do much for us or for those around us spiritually. If we have lived charmed lives and are continually boasting about how good God has been to us, we will only hurt those around us who are going through difficult times. And such good fortune will probably leave us with a shallow faith that has never been tested. A charmed life will ultimately be to our detriment. But sometimes life is like that, mountaintop to mountaintop.
The second part of life consists of “ordinary days” when we work at our humdrum, everyday tasks. On these days we are neither elated nor depressed. This, of course, is where we spend most of our time. When we are young, such days are boring. As we grow older, such days are reassuring. How many of you you don’t have to raise your hands have gotten to the point when you think boring is good? “No news is good news,” or so they say.
Finally, there are the “dark days” of life when we trudge heavily through confusion, doubt, despair, and discouragement. Sometimes these days string out into months or even years before we begin to experience a sense of relief and victory. Eventually all of us will experience dark days. These are days that test our faith. Nevertheless, these days offer three valuable benefits.
First of all, they offer the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth. When we have been through a time of testing, it gives us confidence that we can handle the next test.
The painter, John Sargent, once painted a panel of roses that was highly praised by critics. It was a small picture, but it approached perfection. Although offered a high price for this painting on many occasions, Sargent refused to sell it. He considered it his best work and was very proud of it.
Why did he hold on to it? It was so that whenever he was deeply discouraged and doubtful of his abilities as an artist, he would look at it and remind himself, “I painted that.” (7) Then his confidence and ability would come back to him.
Some of you have been through difficult times more difficult than some of us will ever know. Rather than making you bitter, by God’s grace, those times have made you better. You look at those days now like Sargent did at his painting, and you say to yourself, “I made it through that, I know I can handle the next test that life sends me.” Dark days give us confidence.
But there is a second benefit. Dark days offer us the best possible opportunity to witness to our faith.
Many years ago an architect planned that the walls of the Royal Palace in Teheran, Iran be covered with sheets of beautiful mirrors from Paris. But when the shipment of glass arrived from Paris every mirror had been smashed in travel. The entire shipment was destroyed! The grand entry could not be completed.
Just as the workmen started gathering the broken pieces together to discard them, however, the architect said, “Wait a minute. I’ve got an idea!” He then took a hammer and broke some of the larger pieces into tiny pieces. He gathered them up in his hands and walked over to the entry. He then put some glue on the wall and arranged the tiny pieces. He did this several times until he had an enormous montage of broken mirror pieces. At no point were the mirrors broken alike and at no point was the angle exact.
Today, the Royal Palace in Teheran is a dazzling brilliant display of prisms, reflecting light! One visitor stood in awe and described the result like this: “Broken to be more beautiful!” (8)
At some point in our lives we might give that same testimony, “Broken to be more beautiful!” Anybody can handle the mountaintop days of our lives. It is when we can handle the dark days that our lives become a living testimony to our faith in God. As we sometimes say, God will use our mess as a message and our tests as a testimony.
And finally, when you go through life’s dark days, you are better able to empathize with others who are experiencing dark days. Your experiences bond you to one another. In such a setting, you are better able to share the love of Jesus Christ.
Richard E. Gribble tells about an old man, a recent convert to Christianity, who used to come to a mission hospital every day and read the Gospels to the patients.
One day the man was having trouble reading, so he went to the doctor for a checkup and eye examination. The doctor examined his eyes and discovered that he was going blind and would probably be totally blind in a year or two. After this day there was no sign of the man at the hospital; no one knew what had happened to him.
Eventually a young man found him and brought him again to the mission hospital. The old man explained to all that the reason he had not been reading to the patients since his diagnosis was because he had been working very hard to memorize the Gospels while he could still see. “Soon I will be back at the hospital,” the old man said to one of the missionaries, “and I will continue my work of teaching the Gospel to the patients.” (9)
Now there’s a man of faith. He wasn’t going to be defeated. If he was going to lose his sight, then he would memorize the scriptures and teach them from memory. Can you imagine what an impact this man had on all the patients when he returned to teach in that hospital?
Paul knew about dark days. He writes, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day . . .”
This is the believers’ hope. It is that hope that caused Stephen to look up into the face of those who were about to murder him for his faith, and rejoice. It is that hope that caused believers in the early church to willingly allow themselves to be hauled into coliseums and be fed to lions and wild beasts and be set on fire and used as streetlights all because they would not recant their faith in Christ. Hope says, “Though I walk through the Valley of Death, I will fear no evil.” Hope says, “This, too, shall pass.” Hope says, “I will not give up or despair, for all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.” Do not lose heart!
This is our witness to an unbelieving world. It is a life full of the love of Jesus Christ whether life has us on a mountaintop, in a deep valley or on the level plain. Wherever we are, God is with us.
1. Uncle John’s 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader, Bathroom Readers’ Institute, (Kindle Edition).
2. http://www.sermonnotebook.org/new%20testament/Heb%2012_1-3(2).htm.
3. (Kindle Edition).
4. Philip Yancey, Prayer
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Valvano.
6. Vance Havner, Though I Walk Through the Valley (Old Tappen, NJ: Revell, 1974).
7. Bits and Pieces, September 19, 1991, p. 9.
8. Anthony M. Coniaris, Homilies from an Orthodox Pulpit (Minneapolis: Light & Life Publishing, 1992), pg. 108.
9. With Linda R. Forsberg, Sermons on the First Readings: Cycle B (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 2002).