Just when you think........

We all experience ups and downs in life. What separates us apart from each other is not money, social status, skin color, or what neighborhood we live in, what separates us from each other is how we handle the ups and downs in life. One could make a correlation to this thought with sports. It is really easy to be a good teammate and say the right things to the media personnel when the team is winning. But when the team isn't winning, it is more common to hear about the "drama" that is unfolding behind the scenes with a team!

In looking at an individual player I find Peyton Manning to be one of the most successful players in NFL history. What makes Peyton Manning so great is his ability to overcome his mistakes. Going into this season Manning has 333 TD's passing the ball, but what most people don't realize is that he has completed 165 passes in his career to the opposing team!( AKA interceptions) 165 times in his career he had to overcome a mistake. My college baseball coach said you WIN and you LEARN, the only time you LOSE is when you don't learn from a game or a mistake. This is an approach I try to use in my daily life. Learn from my mistakes. Learn from others mistakes. Learn, learn, and learn some more. Many people ask God to make them more wise. What they don't realize is usually before wisdom the experience of a mistake or a troubling time appears and this is what allows us to learn, thus making us more wise. Wisdom isn't like an epiphany where you wake up and say "I am more wise today I think I am going to be a surgeon now." There isn't a book out there, "How to be more wise in 30 days." There isn't a DVD program, "Wisdom90X" that teaches us to teach ourselves how to be wise. Wisdom is learned through experiences, good and bad.

Recently I was at a place in my life to where I thought I was treating someone close to me in a way that was beneficial to them. This person has a history of medical problems and a history of making some poor decisions. I thought my role was to give them tough love and remind them of how their decisions had made things worse. As this person began to show signs of "righting the ship" the unthinkable happened. This person's health turned for the worst and was hospitalized. Meanwhile I thought I was doing my part and helping this person by not helping them. I was waiting for this person to "figure out" how to make better decisions and to get their body healthy. What I have realized is, I needed to play a more active role in their daily life and help them with their problems and concerns and make them my concerns. This is what Christ did. He didnt say to the sick, "Here take some medicine or I heard this stuff works," he gave them clear cut help. He healed them, he said their sins were forgiven. Has anyone ever wondered why he would tell someone he just healed that theirs sins were forgiven? Maybe it is because he knows that our sin causes trouble and we fall into vicious cycles of sin and it ruins are lives and our health. Not just physical health, but spiritual health as well.

For 3 years I have been lying to myself saying that I was helping this person in my life fix their problems, when all I was really doing was avoiding the truth and be a coward. I didn't want to help because it wasn't convenient. I didn't want to help because I dint think I should have to, seeing how this person was more than twice my age. So just when you think you are doing the right thing, stop, and make sure you aren't "lying to yourself" and indeed do the right thing.