May 30, 2021
Problems Are Opportunities
Problems
can defeat us, right? Well, not necessarily. Not if we look at our problems as
opportunities. Choose to do that and you have made a major course correction in
your life.
Obstacles
are like dandelions; they pop up in every person’s path. But we can choose how
we respond. Someone said, “When you look at a field of dandelions, you can
either see a hundred weeds or a hundred wishes.” That is the attitude we need
when facing our obstacles. We can stumble over our obstacles or turn them into
stepping stones.
We
all fail from time to time. We succeed by getting up, again and again. Henry
Ford called failure “simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more
intelligently.”
Winston
Churchill said, “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The
optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” My experience confirms that
it is always wise to look for the opportunity in every problem.
It
comes down really to a choice between whining and whistling. Look at biblical
heroes Paul and Silas. Arrested and beaten, they were thrown into a prison that
looked and smelled more like a dungeon. Did Paul and Silas whine? No, they saw
their imprisonment as an opportunity to tell the prison guards about their
friend Jesus. At midnight Paul and Silas were not actually whistling but
singing. Imagine that! Singing instead of whining about their problems!
Singing
helps me see problems as opportunities. Of course, there are songs, and there
are songs. It’s important to choose the right songs to sing. When grief comes
knocking on the door of my heart, I don’t break singing about “99 bottles of
beer on the wall,” or “Glory, Glory to old Auburn,” or “I’ve had one to many,
come take me home.”
I
choose a song that helps me express my faith, a song that Old Man Grief will
not like. One of my favorites is “Until Then” by Stuart Hamblen. I love his
idea that heartaches can become stepping stones “along a trail that’s winding
always upward.” My sorrow melts when I start singing these words:
My
heart can sing when I pause to remember
A
heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along
a trail that’s winding always upward,
This
troubled world is not my final home.
Hamblen’s
chorus is a wonderful mantra or a great philosophy of life. I love it. His
basic idea is that when trials overwhelm us, we can choose to “carry on with
joy” and keep on singing until the Lord calls us home. When tribulation tempts
me to whine, I choke back the tears and start singing:
But
until then, my heart will go on singing,
Until
then, with joy I’ll carry on;
Until
the day my eyes behold the city,
Until
the day God calls me home.
Be
careful as you read this chorus. You may break out singing because you see your
problems as opportunities! Glory! + + +