Obstacles

How do you overcome the obstacles in your life?

When you meet a challenge that is too difficult, too daunting, too much, do you deal with it, or let it deal with you?

Lucille Ball was told she'd never be an actress. Michael Jordan was cut from his basketball team. Thomas Edison was told he should go into a career where he could use his good personality, because he'd never make it as an inventor. Abraham Lincoln failed at just about everything he tried. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper saying he had no creativity.

I think they were all able to overcome their obstacles.

Jim Abbott was a major league baseball pitcher from around 1989-1998. He played for the Angels, the Yankees, the White Sox, and the Brewers. There are more pitchers in the major league than any other position, but its still an elite position. Jim Abbott may just another pitcher to some, but to me, he's an inspiration.

You see, Jim Abott only had one hand. He was born without a right hand. When preparing to pitch the ball, Abbott would rest a right-handed thrower's glove on the end of his right forearm. After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his hand into the glove, usually in time to field any balls that a two-handed pitcher would be able to field. Then he would remove the glove by securing it between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out of the glove, and remove the ball from the glove, usually in time to throw out the runner, and sometimes even starting double plays. During international play, Cuba once decided to repeatedly bunt against him, hoping that he wouldn't be able to manage, which proved to be an unsuccessful strategy.

Obstacles seem to slow us down quite a bit. We have too much on our plate to devote time to God. We don't have time for prayer, because by the time we get everything else done, we want to sleep. We don't have time for Bible study, because we have a million other things to read and study throughout the day. We don't have time for church, because our jobs overtake our time, and school projects mount up for the teens. Its hard to remain a Christian all the time, because of all the pressure in the world to be everything but Christian.

In Matthew 4, Jesus met an obstacle to his devotion to God in the form of Satan. While trying to devote weeks to God through fasting and prayer and meditation, Jesus was met head on by Satan, tempting him in the three categories of sin: Lust of the eyes, Lust of the flesh, and pride of self. As easy as it would have been to cave into these temptations, or obstacles, in the state of mind that a human body would be in after 40 days of fasting, Jesus met these obstacles in a strong manner, pushing them down, and telling Satan to leave him alone.

Yet, we struggle with finding time to talk to God, or to listen to Him.

Dear God, please help us meet our obstacles in life with strength. Help us to understand that the more obstacles we let run our lives, the less strength we'll have to encounter them. Thank you for the obstacles you place in our lives, so that we'll be able to grow stronger from them. Thank you for your example of Jesus, and how he daily overcame obstacles, proving that you can be a Christian and still have obstacles placed in front of you.