Making the Best
Monday 14th July
John Wooden, the famous former basketball coach, is credited with saying, ”Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.” This is really another way of saying what Paul taught us so many years ago. He said, ”I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” It is interesting to notice that Paul had to learn this for it seems natural to always want something we do not have, to be discontented with our present lot.
Certainly neither Paul nor John Wooden ever advocated a ”do nothing” attitude. They both believed in using their talents and abilities to the full, but they also realized that we need to accept what is and make the best of it. There is another little saying we like which goes like this: ”When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.” This is also another way of saying ”make the best of what you have, to be content right where you are.”
This is a great lesson that many have found hard to learn. Paul gives us some examples of how to do it in his own life. When he was in prison, his situation caused some to preach the gospel because of his good example. Others wanted to ”add affliction to his bonds” and so preached Christ insincerely as they hoped to cause Paul additional pain. Paul didn’t care; he made the best of. the situation and rejoiced that Christ was being preached ”whether in pretence, or in truth.” After Paul’s arrest, Paul is brought before the council to be interrogated. When he realized that part of the council were Sadducees and part were Pharisees, he cried out, ”Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.” This immediately divided his audience and now half of them were for him whereas before they were all against him. This is a good example of making the best of the way things turn out. He had not planned to be arrested, but when he was, he seized the opportunity to turn it to his advantage.
No basketball player makes every basket he shoots, no team wins every game they play. John Wooden taught his young men to play to win but to learn from their defeats and keep trying. This philosophy helped him to build championship teams year after year. Solomon taught us that ”a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”
There is another saying that ties in with this point. ”When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” How many have given up just because they experienced a little opposition along the way? How many no longer try to teach the Truth because they tried it once and nothing happened? How many times did Noah fail to reach those who eventually drowned? He preached for 120 years.
The lesson we all need to remember is to keep on keeping on, to get going when things are tough, to make the best of the way things turn out, to try our best and realize that God is in control and He will make everything work out for our ultimate good.
This was the thinking of Paul and because he thought this way he was able to say, ”I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Yes, Paul could do all things through Christ. The Christ that Paul served is the same Christ we serve. He is just as capable of making all things work for our good today as he was in Paul’s day. Let us then believe it and live like we believe it.
”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”