has done for us in bringing salvation and giving us an inheritance in Him. And, in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, he writes:
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ...
Trials are certain in this life - sometimes they come as a result of mistakes that we have made, and we face the consequences of our choices. Other times, they are the work of an enemy who is intent on destroying us. And, there may be those trials that may come upon us for no apparent reason, but God knows. And, the good news is that God is there with us in the midst of them all. Crisis brings opportunity, and as we continue to trust in God through the adversities we face, rejoicing in Him for what He is doing and what He wants to do, we can come through that trial stronger in the Lord.
+++++
James admonishes believers in the first chapter of his book:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
The story has been out there before - an athlete gets tangled up with performance-enhancing drugs, bringing not only punishment upon himself, but detracting from the entire team. But, there are those that have been told, "no," and enabled with information about what to say "no" to, but still find themselves temporarily off the field.
Such is the situation with a certain SEC quarterback, who was having a good season, leading his team to an undefeated season, but testing positive for a banned substance. That would the Florida's Will Grier, whose backup, Treon Harris, by the way, played well in a loss to LSU Saturday night.
Mike Bianchi, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, is certainly not amused, writing:
Consider the words of Will Grier's father, Chad, himself a high school football coach, according to the Sporting News website:
Crises come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are large and overpowering, others are almost insignificant, but contain an amount of irritation in getting them solved. Some crises may result from our own mistakes, others come in the form of a spiritual attack from the enemy, and others may come into our lives out of nowhere, but are ordained by the hand of a loving God. And, in all of them, we can learn and grow.
So, we admit the certainty of crisis. And, we can also know that there is a God who provides comfort in crisis. Even when we mess up. When we perhaps feel everyone has deserted us and we don't think there is a way out of the mess we've made, our God is faithful and wise, and He will walk with us and do an inner work, as well - so that He might be glorified in the current crisis, and perhaps to prepare us for the next time.
James says that when our faith is tried, that we can experience patience, and we can take another step to spiritual maturity - if we develop the right perspective and not allow crises to overpower us and derail us in our spiritual walk. Yes, there is the certainty of crisis, God's comfort is available, and...we can allow the Spirit of God to develop Godly character in us.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
The story has been out there before - an athlete gets tangled up with performance-enhancing drugs, bringing not only punishment upon himself, but detracting from the entire team. But, there are those that have been told, "no," and enabled with information about what to say "no" to, but still find themselves temporarily off the field.
Such is the situation with a certain SEC quarterback, who was having a good season, leading his team to an undefeated season, but testing positive for a banned substance. That would the Florida's Will Grier, whose backup, Treon Harris, by the way, played well in a loss to LSU Saturday night.
Mike Bianchi, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, is certainly not amused, writing:
"I really hope that people can learn from my mistake," Grier said, his voice cracking. "I'm really sorry to everyone. Just really, really sorry."
Added McElwain about his quarterback: "We feel for him, we feel his pain. … It's something that he feels horrible about. … I want everybody to understand that this is a mistake we'll learn from."
With all due respect, Coach Mac, we're not going to learn from this. When it comes to PEDs, we never learn. No matter how many reputations are ruined and legacies tainted, there's always going to be an athlete who takes something he shouldn't in order to become something he isn't.
You can believe what you want about whether Grier made an "honest" mistake, but he's certainly not going to get the benefit of the doubt from sports fans. Too many of his fellow athletes have lied, cried and denied before him for us to believe any of them now.Not to minimize the gravity of the mistake by Grier, but let's think together how we are all flawed, and we'll make mistakes ourselves, and we have a choice - we can either let that error consume us, distract us, and get us off course long-term, or we can stand up, admit our mistake, and move forward, not in denial, but in taking responsibility for our shortcomings. We ALL make mistakes, we are all fallible humans, and we'll look back on things and think how stupid we were. And, I do think we can learn and grow.
Consider the words of Will Grier's father, Chad, himself a high school football coach, according to the Sporting News website:
This crisis in Will’s life has brought out the best in him as he has asked me to help him find opportunities to serve others while he waits on adults who don’t even know him to decide his immediate future. He is the calming voice in our family, assuring all of us that he’s OK and that God gives his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers. He doesn’t see his world falling apart, he sees his world changing and he is ready to embrace it and tackle it with the same ferocity as his teammates have been attacking opposing offenses.I can understand the sentiment of a father here, and Chad continues:
Unfortunately, crisis brings out the worst in others. It’s disappointing to see the comments of those all too happy to kick a young man who has just had his life turned upside down and vilify him as if he intentionally did something wrong. I’m sure most of those folks are generally good people and just see it as having fun at someone else’s expense and in a twisted way supporting their own team. Others just troll looking for something or someone to hate on. I doubt that many of these people stop to think what that would feel like if it were happening to their own son.By the way, go to Chad Grier's Twitter feed, and you'll find the reference Jeremiah 29:11.
Crises come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are large and overpowering, others are almost insignificant, but contain an amount of irritation in getting them solved. Some crises may result from our own mistakes, others come in the form of a spiritual attack from the enemy, and others may come into our lives out of nowhere, but are ordained by the hand of a loving God. And, in all of them, we can learn and grow.
So, we admit the certainty of crisis. And, we can also know that there is a God who provides comfort in crisis. Even when we mess up. When we perhaps feel everyone has deserted us and we don't think there is a way out of the mess we've made, our God is faithful and wise, and He will walk with us and do an inner work, as well - so that He might be glorified in the current crisis, and perhaps to prepare us for the next time.
James says that when our faith is tried, that we can experience patience, and we can take another step to spiritual maturity - if we develop the right perspective and not allow crises to overpower us and derail us in our spiritual walk. Yes, there is the certainty of crisis, God's comfort is available, and...we can allow the Spirit of God to develop Godly character in us.
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