For those of you who are football fans, you know that Lou Holtz is a football coach who likes to win. Every place that he has coached, he has taken the football program and turned it around. He built Arkansas into one of the major football powers in the nation. He was turning the program around at Minnesota when he was offered the position at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame’s football program had been struggling for several years and Lou Holtz was hired to restore the “Fighting Irish” to their winning tradition. But, the turn-around was not immediate. They lost several games by only a few points and Lou Holtz was left feeling miserable and blue over the defeats.
One day, a reporter asked him, “Coach Holtz, how do you feel about all the problems your team is facing?”
Lou Holtz was quiet for a moment and then he said, “I know God doesn’t send us more trouble than we can handle, but sometimes I think he overestimates my ability!”
I suppose we all feel this way at times! We have all faced those moments when things were not going our way. Perhaps, some crisis came in our lives like the loss of a job, a financial setback, the shattering of a dream, a physical illness, the ripping apart of a special relationship. We all encounter difficulties and these difficulties will leave us feeling blue or depressed. That is understandable. We all feel this way at times.
This is the way the prophet Elijah felt in the Scripture passage I read a moment ago. In order to understand the story, we need to understand that at that time in history, the Jewish people believed that God controlled everything. By that, I mean they believed that if a drought came, God caused it. If a war came, according to their thinking, God caused it. If locusts came and devoured the crops in the field, they believed God sent the locusts. If something good happened, that was due to God. They believed that whatever happened, it was the will of God. They were mistaken in their understanding of God. They were wrong in their understanding of God because God does not try to control everything. A god who tried to control and manipulate everything would be a little god, not a great god. A parent who tries to control every thought and action of his or her child is a small parent. While a great parent is one who wants his children to develop into what they might become. There is a difference. Little people want control while more mature people want to enable.
In Elijah’s time, God was seen as a little god who controlled everything. The drought they were experiencing was being caused by God. This is what Elijah preached! He preached that the drought was because the people were worshiping Baal. Elijah told them if they wanted rain, they must choose between God and Baal.
Baalism was a system an ideology, a way of life and it grew out of their attitude toward property and the ownership of land. The word “Baal” means owner and in the beginning, it had nothing to do with religion. But, Baalism gradually became a god, a god that offered his followers the things human instincts crave, a god of the flesh, a god who encouraged his people to follow their natural inclinations. Baalism was worshiped in indulgence, expressed in lust, and adored in selfishness. Baalism had no inhibitions and simply said, “If it feels good, do it!”
Elijah saw the danger and called the people of Israel to make a choice. He said: “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Elijah proposed a contest between the prophets of Baal and himself. They both would build altars and pray to their gods to see which one would send a fire and consume the altar.
The prophets of Baal went first. They built their altar and marched around it praying. But nothing happened. Elijah called out sarcastically, “Why don’t you shout louder? Maybe your god is asleep.” There was no fire and the altar was not consumed.
Then Elijah built his altar to Jehovah. He had some people saturate the altar with water to make it difficult to burn. He called upon God to consume the altar with fire, and according to the story, lightning struck the altar and it burned.
But, that’s not the end of the story. Elijah was the winner and to prove he was the winner, he had the prophets of Baal killed. He was elated! His God had won and the rains came and the drought was over.
However, everybody was not happy. Jezebel, the queen, was upset with Elijah for killing her prophets. She sent word to Elijah saying, “… if I don’t get you tomorrow… after what you did to my prophets, I hope the gods do to me the same as he did to them.” You know what Jezebel meant. She meant, “Elijah, I’m going to kill you.”
Then, Elijah got blue. Elijah fled for his life and went and hid in the wilderness. Out in the wilderness, he started to feel sorry for himself and he cried out to God:
Lord God almighty, I have always served you -- you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left -- and they are trying to kill me.
Elijah was feeling blue. Elijah was feeling so low that they would have to jack him up just to bury him. You and I can relate to that. We know what it is to be blue and depressed by the pressures of life because we feel cheated, because we feel alone, because everything just seems too much for us sometimes.
Now, when you are feeling blue, you have two choices. You can give up and go under or, you can grit your teeth and summon up all your courage and try to overcome the blues.
Obviously, I believe you ought to fight your way out of the blues. I want to suggest three things that are important in overcoming the blues.
I. You Can Overcome The Blues When You Remember That What You Think Is Important.
Overcoming the blues doesn’t have anything to do with your size or physical health. It has to do with what you think and believe. Elijah, out in the wilderness, thought it was all over and he was blue. He said, “… I’m the only one left -- and they’re trying to kill me.” He was having trouble overcoming his blues because he didn’t believe he could. He had given up in his heart and mind. If you believe you can’t overcome a problem in your heart and mind, you probably won’t.
But, if you think you can overcome the problem and believe you can overcome the problem, you probably will. It is powerful, this belief within, which gives you the strength to overcome the problem-causing blues of life.
When I was in graduate school, I worked at the YMCA as a football coach for fourth and fifth grade boys. One day I went over to the “Y” to pick up some equipment. While I was waiting on the equipment, I stood around watching a karate instructor with a group of boys. These little boys were using their hands to break boards and I stood there shaking my head and saying, “That looks like it would hurt.”
The instructor looked at me and invited me to give it a try. Now, I knew nothing about karate! However, the instructor explained how karate was primarily a mental thing -- a way of thinking. He told me to put everything out of my mind and concentrate on that board. He told me to keep thinking, “I’m going to break that board.”
And that is what I was telling myself. I kept saying over and over again, “I’m going to break the board. I’m going to break the board.” I summoned all my strength and hit the board.
Unfortunately, the board must have been thinking, “Oh no you’re not!” When I hit the board, it did not break but I thought my hand did. The pain started in my knuckles and shot all the way up my arm. I opened and closed my hand to make sure it wasn’t broken.
Do you know what the instructor said to me? He looked at me and said, “Try again!”
I thought, “No way, Jose!”
But, the instructor continued talking and said, “You can do it! You’re big enough and strong enough. You’ve got to concentrate and believe in your mind that your hand is going through the board.”
So, I tried again. I concentrated on the board. I studied the grain. I saw my hand going through the board. I believed that I could do it. Then, I took a deep breath and my hand went through the board. There was nothing to it when I began to believe that I could do it.
I believe that it is the same with the problems which produce the blues in your life. If you believe in your heart and mind that you can overcome them, I believe that you will. What you think is important.
II. You Can Overcome The Blues When You Help Someone Else.
When you are feeling blue and depressed and all you can do is mope around feeling sorry for yourself, there is no better way to lift yourself out of the doldrums than to help somebody else. Forget for a moment what it means to those upon whom your assistance is bestowed. Instead, think about what helping another will do for you. It takes your attention off of yourself. It casts out fear. It cures and conquers evil. It frees you from your worries and helps you see another who is in need.
The July 1988 issue of Guidepost has an article by Linda Nuekrug. She told of losing her job and going for several months without finding another. Without a job, she dreaded sitting at home and she started going to the park to mope and feel sorry for herself.
One day, while she was sitting on a park bench, an elderly woman jogged by and stopped to tie her shoe. The woman said, “I’ve seen you around here every day. Do you work around here?”
Linda looked up and thought her comment was just an excuse to start a conversation. But, she quietly answered, “I’m unemployed.”
“You know,” the woman said, “When I first retired my life was very empty. All I did was mope and mope some more, thinking about what I didn’t have and how I had nothing. I had no job and no husband, and most of my friends had passed on. Even my dog had gone to the other side. My Social Security check was gone almost before I cashed it and I used to worry about where my next dollar -- no, my next dime was coming from. Every day, I kept praying for God to send me money but God sent me nothing. Then one day I realized I was poor in money, but I was rich in time. I had all this time, but how was I spending it? So, I decided that I would spend, spend, spend! Every day I devoted some time to helping others. I read to the blind. I visit people on the cancer floor at the hospital. I tutor children after school. I deliver meals-on-wheels, and to my amazement, I am enjoying my life.”
The best way of overcoming the blues in your life is to get the focus of your attention off of yourself. When you begin helping someone else, I believe that you will be amazed at how much you can help yourself.
III. You Can Overcome The Blues When You Align Your Life With The Power And Greatness Of God.
There is a story about a man who paid $50 for an old broken-down sway-backed horse. This horse looked like it was only one step from the glue factory. It was the most disgusting excuse for a horse that ever walked on this earth.
However, the new owner took this horse and entered him in the Kentucky Derby. He was a 5,000 to one shot and those odds were too low. The horse came in dead last! He was barely out of the starting gate by the time the winner was taking his victory lap.
When the Preakness came up, the owner entered his old broken-down sway-back horse in that race. And, the results were the same. Dead last.
Later, when the Belmont came up, he again entered his horse in that prestigious race. Someone asked him, “Why do you keep entering that sorry excuse for a horse in a race against the world’s greatest thoroughbreds?”
The man said, “I know he can’t win, but I believe the association will do him good.”
I believe that when you align yourself with God and realize that he is with you, the association will do you some good. You can try all of the methods in the world of trying to overcome the blues and they may work for a while. But, they are not enough. It is only when you align your life with the power and greatness of God, it is only when you realize that God is always with you, it is only when you realize that you are not alone in the midst of your problems. Only then will a ton of care and concern drop from your shoulders and you will know that you have found the real secret to overcoming the blues.
Prayer: Eternal God, help us to know of your loving presence to strengthen us and guide us and sustain us, throughout all of life. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.