and the road back
November 1, 2010 (Monday)
Fans of the Dallas Cowboys are disappointed in the team’s record so far this season. Some of the “supporters” are wearing paper sacks over their heads at the games. A few are displaying signs expressing their disappointment. The team was booed off the field after the final play of yesterday’s game against Jacksonville. When the players run onto the field at the beginning of their games, they look much the same as the Cowboys of previous years, but something is different. This team has lost almost all its games this year.
Some of the other teams that have done so well in the past are faltering this year. That fact brings little comfort to teams that are losing their games.
Pastors understand their feelings. If a church is not doing well, it is no comfort at all to learn that the other churches of the area are not being successful either. What a pastor wants to know is the same thing the coaches want to know: how do we make things better?
This is true of any personal problem we face in life. It does us no good to fix blame for our problems on someone else. This sometimes happens when we are frustrated and cannot figure out why we have the problems we are having. There is always something or someone that can serve as a scapegoat.
We never solve our own problems by focusing on someone else. The beginning of a real solution is claiming responsibility for our own actions. No one “makes” us do anything. When we say to another person, “You make me angry,” we are only fooling ourselves. The same sun that melts the butter also hardens the clay. Whatever feelings we may be having are ours by our permission or a result of our own actions. What happens to us is not as important to our spiritual and emotional well being as our reaction to what happens. We cannot solve our problems by blaming or attempting to change someone else.
That’s the lesson some teams have learned. When they finally realized that they themselves needed to change, and humbled themselves by sacrificing pleasures and working hard, making their success as a team their top priority in life, they have been able to turn things around. It is also the way our own lives can be improved.