When I was very young, I didn’t really enjoy watching sports. It wasn’t so much the watching of the sport that I didn’t enjoy, it was the sitting still for hours part that I couldn’t tolerate.
But I also hated not knowing what was going on when everyone was talking about the game the next day. My predicament was solved by the ESPN highlight reels.
Even people who don’t enjoy sports at all can enjoy watching highlight reels. They’re great for keeping up with everything exciting going on in the world of sports without being burdened with the endless hours of sitting still. And if you’re like me, you really can’t afford to sit still that long when you have a to-do list that never ends.
A mistake that we can easily make if all we ever watch is highlight reels is believing that the people in those reels don’t ever make mistakes.
In highlight reels we see the home runs, and some, but not all of the strikeouts. And we only see the strikeouts because they are the highlight of the pitcher.
For instance, in 1969, Reggie Jackson had the most home runs with 47, and lots of people know that. However, he also led the league in strikeouts with 142! More than 3 times more strikeouts than homers.
Why share all of this? I share it because most of us are guilty of comparing ourselves, not with the overall picture of another person’s life, but we compare ourselves to the highlights of other people’s lives. And even when we think we see the whole picture, I can assure you, we don’t – it’s not even possible.
Sometimes I even compare my ministry efforts to those of people like the Apostle Paul – how foolish is that! I see Paul’s great successes in making disciples and wish for the same results. However, I easily neglect passages like 2 Corinthians 1:8, where the Apostle Paul wrote:
For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;
I want the successes, but I don’t want to be so discouraged, so burdened, that I believe that because of my ministry that I’m afraid that I’ll lose my life.
You may want some of the highlights of someone else’s life, but I’ve never heard someone say they wanted the failures and hardships that other people face – and be assured of this – everyone is fighting a battle that you know nothing about.
Life is not a highlight reel. It is the slow grind of the monotonous with occasional peaks and valleys along the way. But when we walk through life with Jesus, the monotonous becomes the blessing of contentment, the peaks become even higher and mor joy-filled than you believed imaginable, and the valleys aren’t nearly as scary as they once appeared…for He is with me (Psalm 23:4).
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
