Work and Winning

For over twenty years (1958-1980) professional golfer Gary Player was among the very elite in the golf world, being one of ‘the big three’—the other two being Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.  Legend has it that one day while practicing sand shots from a bunker he ‘holed out’ three or four shots in a row—an unheard of feat.  A man who observed him doing this asked, “How do you do this?”  Player answered, “The harder I work the luckier I get.”  Hmmm. 

It was this work ethic that garnered Gary Player 24 PGA tour victories, 19 Champions Tour victories and 115 International professional and open victories.  It was this same work ethic that enabled the UCLA basketball team under another of my ‘giants,’ coach John Wooden, to win 9 national basketball championships (including 7 in a row) with different players.

 

Another winner was Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi who, it is reported to have said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

   

But winning is not the subject of this essay.  (For I happen to disagree with Coach Lombardi; winning is just an outcome, what makes one a ‘winner’ is of much more interest to me.) 

 

I believe—as did my teaching mentor (through his writings, clinics, and example) Coach John Wooden—that  “striving for self-satisfaction that always comes from knowing that you did the best you could to become the best of which you are capable” is the standard for success.  This I have found to be true whether in athletics or in life.  It takes effort, and, again, effort is what people call work. 

 

But work is not drudgery.  All my adult life I have enjoyed working because I have done it with the right attitude toward the effort I was making.  I did it at the university in the library; I did it with my students; and I have done it on the athletic field and on the golf course.  Preparation and practice, to me, have always been fun.

 

I like the slogan we sometimes tell the youth in our Church: “Find joy in the journey.” Find fun in the work.  Your work may even be tied to your ‘glory.’

Miracles

Today’s commonplace is yesterday’s ‘miracle.’  Of course landing a man on the moon is not commonplace but it has been done.  Is it a miracle? Most of us have not had a heart replacement, but many have been performed.  Is that a miracle? Projecting the perfect image and sound of a person’s voice across the world with only a second or two delay would have been unthinkable 200 years ago but we see it every day.  Being told you could carry in the palm of your hand the libraries of the world only a half-century ago would have seemed preposterous.  Television, airplane flight, modern medicine—all of these things would have been considered miracles in time past—incredible then but indisputably credible now. 

Many wonderful things—in reality the most commonplace things in the world—are also frequently called miracles; such is the birth of a child or the coming of spring.  But to label these things as miracles, I submit, diminishes the strength of the word.   Real miracles upset our most cherished assumptions of how the world is or should be—or at least has always been. They are occurrences which are beyond the power of any presently known physical power to produce; they deviate from the known laws of nature.   They are supernatural events.

People initially distrust the report of miracles because these are incidents that do not fall within the pale of their own experience or because the ‘miracle’ cannot be replicated at will.  Because they have not experienced such an event they say the purported miracle could not have been experienced by anyone. 

Miracles threaten the established order.  From time immemorial people who claimed they had seen, heard, or experienced ‘miraculous’ things were dismissed as delusional or burnt at the stake as being possessed.  Yet the reports of a few of these ‘miracle workers’ or ‘miracle experiencers’ or the extraordinary event itself have persisted notwithstanding the gainsayers.  Christianity, at least in its pure form, persists.

 

So, are there miracles?

I believe there have been miracles and there will yet be more.  But they will not be and have not been just random events.—there will be a witness or witnesses.  And the ‘miracle’ will serve a good purpose.  This is critical.   This is the test: evidence, witness, good purpose. 

How is it done?

My faith has much to say about miracles.  Miracles are done by the power of God, which power is sometimes delegated, upon need, to man.  And they are done even today in God’s true Church.  Miracles are, indeed, a sign of the true Church.  They are called ‘gifts of the Spirit.’  Strong faith in Jesus Christ and righteousness capacitate the power of God by which miracles are performed.  A church which denies miracles or has no miracles performed in it is not God’s true Church, for "God is a God of miracles and is the same yesterday, today, and forever. . . .” If it serves His purpose He can perform miracles; who are we to limit Him or what He can do?

   

Miracles, true miracles, are done for but one purpose—the eternal salvation of man.  I, for one, desire to be saved from and out of this wicked world. Now that is a miracle! Thank God for miracles.   

Breaking the Chains

I recently saw the heart-rending video of the liberation of an elephant that had been in confined captivity for fifty years.  After these many years she was transferred from her chained existence at the Louisiana Purchase Zoo to the unchained freedom of the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.  Her longtime former keeper, a man named Solomon James, noted that he was not the one who put her in chains, but was overjoyed to be the man who finally was privileged to take her out of chains.  Over the years he had developed a great love for ‘his’ elephant.  Upon arrival at the Sanctuary, in addition to her being set free of chains was the immediately apparent joy of the elephant Shirley’s reunion of herself with her old elephant friend from decades before.  Animals, too, have feelings and love-attachments. 

I think of the many people who are sometimes literally, but more frequently figuratively in chains because of addictions or ignorance or despair or by the machinations of evil men.  I can hardly express how much I loathe those who cause and seem to take pleasure in physical, emotional, or spiritual harm or put into 'chains' once-innocent and hopeful people or even animals.

I am ashamed to admit that I once (over forty years ago) was a hunter who, like most—if they would only analyze their actions and admit it—enjoyed killing their game.  I still think of two or three incidents in my life that I unthinkingly (by childish action) or by design (as a hunter) killed animals for no good reason (such as need—say by starvation—or to limit the harm they were causing me).  I still kill ants, mosquitoes, and some spiders, and not with joy, but always have reservation about going beyond what I find necessary to do. 

 

The point I want to make, though, pertains to people.  To lead people into the chains of addiction by introduction or by supplying deleterious substances (drugs, harmful food, pornography, false ideas or ‘chains of darkness,’ etc.) to them, one is committing a crime against life.

Ours should be the opposite course—to liberate, where we can, by breaking the ‘chains that bind,’ or to take a helping role in helping others break their chains.

   

Could we all not find some way to be instruments to help liberate one so enchained? Think about it.