Holy Bounce-ology

By John Stallings


Recently a 33 year old man from Brooklyn, New York was distraught that he was about to be robbed for the second time in nine months, this time by two youths intent on stealing his watch and Laptop.

The man started screaming uncontrollably, “Why does this have to happen to me? Why does this always have to happen to me?” The poor guy was so upset that his nerves got the best of him and he was making so much noise about it that the muggers got nervous. The victim later told police that one of the robbers …answered “Oh please, don’t be a crazy person. This is New York. Everybody gets mugged.”

I don’t want to be flip here, because getting mugged as anyone whose ever been robbed knows all too well, is no fun. But the philosophical robber had it right. What is true on the tough streets of Brooklyn is true in this rough-and-tumble place called real life. Eventually everybody- no matter how spiritual, clever, lucky, well bred or bright -gets “mugged" in life. Real life has this way of periodically knocking our underpinnings out from underneath us…of upsetting our orderly assumptions…of messing with that idyllic script we all wrote for ourselves...of throwing our lives into upsetting chaos.

Sometime early on in our adult lives most-if-not-all-of-us write a wildly optimistic script for ourselves…a script that would have things go predictably, safely, gently and well for us.

At some point in our innocence we imagine that our lives will unfold in smooth, rational, comfortable patterns. We imagine that we’ll get the right education, find the right job, and begin building a satisfying career that will see us steadily and predictably advance in expertise, influence, and income.

We imagine that we will on cue find just the right person to fall in love with, a wonderful Christian individual, establish a happy partnership in a beautiful home with that mate, and together have God’s blessings and the right genetics to have a couple of darling, bright and precocious children and grandchildren who will do us proud by their well-rounded development into exceptional adults.

In addition to fulfillment and contentment at home and work, we likewise imagine that what lies ahead for us is a long, contented life marked by good health, good luck, heavenly blessings, good judgment, and maybe a few unpleasant surprises. Right?

Then…sooner or later…something called real life shows up and says to each of us, "HEL…LOOO!"

Few if any make it into midlife who have not been thrown at least one “cosmic sucker punch,” often when they least expected it. A marriage fails… a child dies… a car accident happens… a career derails…perhaps disease or illness comes…maybe we just find ourselves struggling to cope with a mix of vexing life difficulties. I once knew a pastor who jokingly told people that his favorite scripture was “grin and bear it.” Funny guy!

When we got our first computer there was a cute little video making the rounds with an animated girl singing the pop song “I will survive.” Just as she’s really getting into the song a big wrecking ball comes down and squashes her. Though it was really a shocking thing to see, after the initial viewing I almost burst my sides laughing. The whole thing rings so true. Maybe we won’t all get hit so hard but that’s exactly the kind of thing life is famous for. Remember the song “That’s life?”

Each of us "gets mugged" in different ways – but we all experience the painful shock to our system when some aspect of our life goes completely hay-wire, and we find ourselves struggling in ways we never remotely imagined. Perhaps one of the most essential truths of living is…over a lifetime, bad, unwanted things happen to us and all of us are eventually thrown to the mat by life.

These thoughts may trouble you at first because we’re taught that nothing happens to the child of God in a “happenstance way.” And that is true. God’s people don’t just bounce around helplessly with no rhyme or reason to their experience. Very true. So the correct idea is that- “bouncing” is a word or concept we mortals use to explain what our life experience sometimes feels like. But from God’s perspective, we’re all on a divine time-clock experiencing exactly what God intends for us. If God didn’t send it, He allowed it and will be faithful to work it all out for our good and His glory.

General George Patton said, “Success is determined by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”

You may hit bottom when you make wrong, foolish choices, or you may hit bottom because of the wrong foolish choices of others. Failure can send you plummeting down to the depths of discouragement. When your money runs low or your health is snatched away--when depression drags you down and you can’t seem to find any hope---when you feel all alone and God feels far away-- you look around and discover you’ve hit bottom. The real issue is: how do you bounce back then?

BOWLING BALL, BASKET BALL

What would happen if you dropped a bowling ball? Would it bounce back up, or would it hit the floor with a thud? That's right; it would hit the floor and pretty much stay there. Bowling balls aren't very good at bouncing back.

Now, what would happen if you dropped a basketball? Would it bounce back up, or would it hug the floor? Right again, it would bounce right back up.

Now, why will the basketball bounce back up and the bowling ball won't? Someone might explain that the density and composition of the basketball is key to its ability to bounce. The simple fact is that the basketball is made of the right stuff and has what it takes to bounce back, the bowling ball doesn't.

God made us like that. When things aren't going too well for us we can either be the basketball or the bowling ball. We can choose to either hit the floor and stay there, or we can bounce back higher than we were before. We can do that because we’re made of the right stuff. God gave us the strength to overcome life’s downers. He gave us the ability to bounce back.

So remember this the next time you’re feeling down, sad, angry, or lonely; you can bounce back. You can do it with God’s help.

I am persuaded that because life is the way it is, a healthy measure of resilience is crucial to each of us if we are to successfully navigate spiritually and emotionally through the often unpredictable, challenging tumble of our lives. Life has taught me that resilience is a profound and saving virtue…resilience is a life stance and skill that can rescue us from bitter, poisoned, withdrawn and joyless living.

Life is tricky. That just might be the understatement of the year. Resilience is something you and I must intentionally nurture if we are going to cope in life.

We’ve observed people we know both in the public arena and in our private lives respond very differently to adversity. We all have watched as some people who become paraplegics by some terrible accident find it impossible to adapt to this loss, fold their spiritual and emotional tents and sit there immobilized in self-pitying despair because they have lost the use of their legs.

Meanwhile other, more resilient people who have experienced the exact same thing, and are outwardly no different than those who emotionally and physically collapse get right back out there, decide to make the most of a bad situation, and begin training joyfully for wheelchair marathons!

Similarly, we all know people who have gone through a painful divorce who treat their failure in love as permanent and refuse to believe they can ever be successfully and joyfully intimate with another person…while other persons more resilient at heart who have been just as deeply hurt and surprised by the collapse of a marriage, move on from their failed relationship with faith that they can and will learn from the experience, and eventually once again start seeking the kind of life-saving love and intimacy we all seek.

Likewise, we witness some people who tragically lose a beloved child or a spouse in the prime of life spend the next four decades hating God, and stewing in the unfairness of the capricious loss they have suffered…while others who experience the same loss and grief, who are again, just as deeply shattered and shaken by the shock of such loss somehow quickly and courageously begin once again to open new doors out into their worlds…by risking new, caring relationships and commitments that reconnect them in love and vulnerability.

I marveled at the resiliency of the late Superman actor Christopher Reeve. Without a lot of fuss he turned the terrible loss he suffered toward the brightest possible light, and adapted his life productively to the new possibilities his disability allowed.

Let me introduce you to my blind son-in-law, Marcus Engel. I have written about him before because he’s a very interesting individual. Though I don’t see men as women do I must admit Marcus is a tall, dark and handsome dude. To make it even more disgusting [kidding] he’s well over six feet and from Greek extraction. At age 18, Marcus was riding in a car that was t-boned by a drunk driver. Marcus lost his sight because of that accident but in the ensuing years has with infectious spirit adapted to being sightless to the extent that I can say in spite of the daily hardships and frustrations which come with blindness, leads as full, joyful and engaged a life as anyone I’ve ever met or heard of.

Today in his thirties, Marcus along with my eldest daughter, the lovely and gracious Marvelyne, and his faithful Guide dog Garrett, [Marcus’ third dog] travels the nation as a motivational speaker, speaking in schools, colleges and I suppose any venue open to him. It’s an inspiration just to be in Marcus’ presence.

Let me give you a quick antic dote to show you the depth of Marcus’ resiliency. I first heard about it on Face book. A week or so ago, Marcus had finished giving a speech at a college and was signing books. His new Guide dog Garrett, just walked off. This type of thing is almost unheard of, what with all the training the dogs go through. What I’ve learned about Guide dogs is that when they get all rigged in their “harness” they are strictly business and really pay attention only to their owner. However when you take off the harness, they are just as playful as any other dog, and probably friendlier.

Marvelyne said they located Garrett in a happy mood running up and down the halls. He had his harness on his back that Marc uses to hold on to. I’ve often marveled at the teaming an unsighted person with a dog in this way because I know a lot of people who can see who can’t handle a dog.

Non-the-less the system works. With his usual acumen, Marcus took the whole incident in stride, understanding that if human beings can have lapses in judgment and acceptable behavior, certainly a young inexperienced guide dog can.

BOUNCE-OLOGY

Isn't it encouraging realizing that God has built into all of us the innate ability to bounce back from anything that life might throw at us? In other words, we’re actually designed that way by our all-wise heavenly Father. Let that sink in; you and I were designed by God with the equipment to bounce-back from anything life shells out. Obviously Christians have this ability in spades although some don’t seem to realize how ‘bouncy” they really are.

If we fall accidentally, or are slammed to the ground by the actions of another; the harder the fall, - the higher the bounce. To further simplify it, this experience can be traced through an acronym spelled FIRE;

F-Fall
I-Impact
R-Restoration
E-Elevation

Let’s use a tennis ball as an example. If you saw in slow-motion a tennis racket hitting a tennis ball, you’d see the ball sinking into the racket and partially losing its shape because of the pressure of the strike. We could call that the “Fall.” As the “Impact” of the fall/strike unfolds, you’d see the ball leaving the racket and being thrust forward at a high rate of speed, but you’d also notice the ball as it moves through the air, thanks to the way it’s engineered, regaining its original shape. This is “restoration,” because the ball, once “bent out of shape” has now regained its original form.

Then depending on the force of the swing the ball was subjected to, and the trajectory of the strike, the ball would reach a certain height or distance. This is Elevation.
Once the ball has left the racket, and the further it moves away from the strike, built-in buoyancy assumes control. Can you see it? Praise the Lord, the harder we’re hit the higher we bounce back. I’ve been slammed so hard at times; I knew I was going to need an oxygen mask to breathe when the “elevation” came.

Any blow a Christian takes can do nothing but push them further along the path God has laid out for them. Why? Because that blow has to pass through a “divine sifter” and that sifter transforms the blow from destructive to constructive.

LIFE DOESN'T ALWAYS MOVE ALONG THE PATH WE ANTICIPATE.

MOSES

Moses is a study in bounces. He started off a basket case. By all accounts he should have been dead. He was in the equivalent of a Hebrew refugee camp. Moses was abandoned by his parents under threat of the State. The pharaoh king fearful of the sheer number of the Israeli population ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill any boy babies as soon as they were born. He of course expected this to be carried out, but Moses was spared. Moses was part of a despised minority [baby boys] so despised in fact they were victims of legalized murder.

A question arises here; why didn’t God just allow His deliverer to be born before Pharaoh decided to kill all the Hebrew male babies?Think about it this way; the lethal environment into which Moses was born provided an opportunity for a Hebrew child to be raised by the daughter of Pharaoh. The man who was going to take 2,000,000 rough-necks through a hostile desert for 40 years, meet face to face with Pharaoh as God’s spokesman & write the first five books in the Bible required a very special kind of training & the development of some unique abilities.

So God arranges a set of circumstances wherein a Hebrew mother places a perfectly healthy beautiful child into a wicker basket which would end up in the possession of the daughter of Pharaoh who raises him in a manner fitting royalty. Think about the utter improbability of a baby boy born to a hated Hebrew slave receiving grooming required to do all that God had planned for Moses. Yet it’s no problem for God because He’s sovereign.

Moses was banished to oblivion in the bleak "Desert University" for forty years until God called him one day out of a burning bush. This calling was the continuation of a life that was marked by ups & downs. We’re told that after a long life of 120 years, Moses died secure in the arms of God.He came a long way from the wicker basket & passed on in accordance with God’s timetable for him. He must have marveled as he looked back over his life & all that God had wrought through him. Before he died, Moses was still robust enough to climb Mt. Nebo in the land of Moab, a mountain that’s extremely high. He hadn’t sat on the sidelines of life & though he wasn’t perfect we are told after his departure,

--No prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

PAUL

Paul said,--being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ…… Phil.1:6

Paul knew what it was to be on a roller coaster ride in his life experience. He had learned to be the big dog or to be considered a complete flop. He knew how to have everything or how to have nothing. Paul could take it all in stride because he understood the sovereignty of God & had all faith that He would finish every work He started.Sometimes Paul soared to great heights & sometime he plummeted to the depths.

Listen to some of his life in his own words;

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night & a day have I been in the deep;In journeyings often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;In weariness, & painfulness, in watchings often, in cold & nakedness, beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. --2 Cor.25-28

Paul gives us a verse of verses when he tells us;--We know that all things work together good for those who love God who are the called according to his purpose.—Romans 8:28

As Christians we believe that God holds the future in His hands.There are many times when we’ll not see the good even if it were right under our nose. We have to accept that our notion of what is good may not always square with what God calls good in His divine wisdom & infinite understanding. Sometimes life is a tapestry, a weaving, a quilt. If we look at it from the backside all we see is a confusing jumble of knots & threads & colors. It seems chaotic without rhyme or reason. We don’t always see what God’s hand is creating. But turn the tapestry over and you see the beautiful pattern.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God who are called according to His purpose. That promise is our anchor in this troubling & confusing world. That promise is our security, our comfort, our hope.

JESUS AND “ROCKY”

Peter is one of my favorite characters in the Bible, partly because we know a great deal about him. The Greek word we know as Peter really means "rock." Call me crazy but I like to think Jesus might have called him Rocky. Jesus built His church, not as many suppose, on Peter himself, but rather on his declaration of faith that Jesus was The Christ, The Son of The Living God. In scripture we see Peter struggling with the gap between what he wanted to be, and what he was.

Through the years, the gap narrowed and Peter became the Rock, the head of the disciples, a strong, powerful leader of the church who eventually was martyred in Rome. We can see the growth in Peter through the years and his experience can serve as an example for all of us who struggle in life.When you deal with the tension-anxiety-causing gaps in your life remember Peter. When you think of Peter, think of the four Rs.

Real,
Rash,
Resilient, and
Redeemable.

Peter was authentic. People were never in doubt as to who Peter was. He told you. He lived it. Peter accepted himself and was comfortable with himself. When he failed, he admitted it. When he felt guilty, he did something about it. He didn't wallow in the guilt. Peter was refreshingly open about his imperfections and shortcomings. When you are open about where you are, when you admit to yourself and those around you that you are not what you want to be, then you are opening yourself to the possibility of change.

When you deny where you are and who you are by pretending to yourself and to the world, you are denying yourself the opportunity to do something about it. No doctor can help people get well when they deny they are sick! Why would Jesus choose a Simon Peter rather than a self-righteous Pharisee? The insufferable Pharisees couldn't admit any defects, while Peter openly displayed his, admitted his humanness, and thereby opened himself to the transforming power of Christ. Peter's defects were redeemed.

There was little pretense in Peter. Peter was real, authentic, a genuine person who took himself as he came, didn't excuse himself; and didn't look for rationalizations. He presented himself as he was. Here I am, like me or not. Peter accepted himself, and, in the accepting, found the grace and power to change. Peter was real, rash, adventurous, impulsive, impetuous, thereby lovable, thereby able to grow, and able to make changes in his life. Peter impulsively tried to walk on water like Jesus, and sunk like a rock. Is that why Jesus called him Rocky??

When the soldiers arrested Jesus, Peter impulsively, impetuously, rashly, drew his sword and cut off a man's ear. Not that we should emulate this behavior, but it shows his personality. His feelings were near the surface. He took chances. He risked. Because he risked, he made himself vulnerable, and sometimes he made mistakes, like cutting off the guard's ear. Jesus reprimanded him for that.

If our goal is to never make a mistake, you and I will never do anything. We’ll remain rigid and frigid, immovable, and thereby irredeemable. Peter was resilient. He kept bouncing back. Jesus had to reprimand him on occasion. At one point, Jesus didn’t like the advice Peter was giving him, and He told Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Those were strong words but Peter didn't pout, sulk, get mad, or quit the group. He didn't say, "Jesus, take this job and shove it!" He persisted. He bounced back.

When he denied knowing Jesus to the maid in the courtyard outside the trial, and thereby, let Jesus down; when he was not there with Jesus through the trial and the crucifixion, he was filled with remorse, but unlike Judas, he didn't let his remorse drive him to suicide. Peter was resilient. He bounced back. After the crucifixion, he went to the upper room and led the group in their praying and deciding what to do next. He was filled with Holy Ghost power and in the first gospel sermon ever preached saw 3,000 souls saved.

When the women found the tomb of Jesus empty, they ran to report to Peter. Peter bounced back. He kept trying. He refused to give up. He sought to become the kind of person God was calling him to be. Peter was redeemable and there was always hope for him. Even though he disobeyed; even though he let Jesus down; even though he lied by denying he knew Jesus; even though he resorted to violence and cut off the guard's ear, in spite of Jesus' stand on non-resistance; the Lord was patient, long-suffering, and merciful.

Jesus called and kept calling, "Come, follow me." The Lord did not give up on Peter, and he became the Rock--an exemplary, Spirit-filled, powerful leader of the movement. Don't lower your expectations.

Instead, be like Peter; be real, rash, resilient, and thereby redeemable.


Keep bouncing back!


Blessings,


John