I went duck hunting one day and it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing at perhaps 40 knots. I looked at my duck blind which stood about thirty feet from shore in water at least 4 feet deep. It had been raining and I glumly wondered if the water might go over the tops of my waders and allow icy water to rush down to my toes.
I sighed deeply and muttered that with this wind I bet a dollar to a donut that I’m not going to even see a duck. Just then I looked down at my black lab, Bear. Even though it was dark I could see his tail wagging like crazy and he appeared to be smiling with his lopsided grin as he anticipated the hunt and splashing through the water bringing me duck after duck.
I think about this incident with Bear quite often. He looked at the glass as being half full and I was looking at it as half empty. I suppose it is I who was the dumb dog.
Today I’m in Phoenix and will attend a monumentally important three days of meetings concerning The Jesus Alliance. It was very difficult to assemble the folks with whom I’ll be meeting and it is a chance of a lifetime to meet with these Christian world leaders that can easily impact our ministry in a huge way and could effortlessly provide the much needed funding and other resources to our dwindling treasury, provided that is, that I can convince them of its validity and need.
The problem is that I’m sick and have been coughing and wheezing all night as I did all day yesterday on the long plane ride out here. I feel awful and wish I could just stay in bed all day and sleep.
I should be eagerly wagging my tail in great anticipation of what the Lord is going to do today, but like I was in the duck blind I’m having trouble visualizing success. It is times like these that I re-read my favorite poem, (no it is not by Walt Whitman or Emerson; it is anonymous).
DON’T QUIT
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit —
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
When you are worried and full of doubt,
just remember that Success is failure turned inside out —
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit, —
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
Bah! Easy for that guy to say; he isn’t exhausted and as sick as someone just sprayed by a skunk.
Okay – Okay – It is at this point that I need to get on my knees and ask God to remove this intense satanic attack far from me. All of this “stinking thinking” has given me a headache and He is my aspirin. He can and will provide the resources that The Jesus Alliance needs to continue its good fight at a time of His choosing and He can provide the strength, health, and stamina that I need to make it through these next three days of meetings.
I need to thank Him for the tremendous blessings that He has bestowed on me and ask that He heal me. Literally it has been like Christmas lately with me being allowed to open a new present every day. I’ve met people from all over the world and there is a good possibility that I will even meet with Pope Francis very soon. There is no question that God wants unity in the church, but He never promised that it would be easy.
Satan doesn’t want me to continue, but there is a huge cloud of witnesses that the Lord has assembled to cheer me on. I mustn’t disappoint them and will give it my all . . . even if it kills me.
Hmmm . . . I feel better now, even though I just realized that I left my high blood pressure medicine sitting on the cabinet where I’d set it out to pack, only to forget it in my rush to get to the airport.
Maybe it will kill me . . . Ha!
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
October 14, 2014 – Click here to listen