Climb the Mountain with God

[This week, in honor of the popular movie Lincoln, I am sharing my favorite stories from the past three years of TMAS on Abraham Lincoln.]  

            You’ve probably seen this before:

Lost Job-age 23

Defeated for Legislature-age 23

Failed in business-age 24

Elected to legislature-age 25

Sweetheart died-age 26

Nervous breakdown-age 26

Defeated for Speaker-age 29

Defeated for Congress-age 34

Elected to Congress-age 37

Lost re-nomination-age 39

Rejected as Land officer-age 40

Defeated for Senate-age 45

Defeated for Senate-age 49

Elected President-age 51

            Abraham Lincoln knew little success in his life, but when he succeeded, he succeeded well. However, his life serves as a reminder that much of life is NOT succeeding. Most of life is climbing the mountain, with some of that climb being imperceptible. A temporary portion of the journey can even be descending the mountain. Nevertheless, we continue the journey.

            I think the most satisfying climb is one traveling with God.

            Climb the mountain with God.

“I’m Moving Again.”

            Too many believe that great people reached their heights without trials, tribulations, failures, and heartaches. They did not.

            The story is told of a young man, who was a struggling newspaper writer in San Francisco. A lady saw him one day with a cigar box under his arm looking in a shop window. “Mr. Clemens, I always see you with a cigar box under your arm. I'm afraid you are smoking too much,” she told him.

            “It isn't that,” he replied. “I'm moving again.”

            In spite of those dire circumstances, Samuel Clemens would go on to write great novels under a pen name—Mark Twain.

            If you are God's man or God’s woman and are presently facing difficult times, it does not necessarily mean that God is displeased with you. Nor does it mean that you are to remain in difficult times.

            I invite you to faithfully look to God, allow this time to deepen your intimacy with him, enjoy his presence, and wait expectantly for what he will do next in your life. 

            If you do, I can promise your life will never be boring!

Too Succeed… You’ve Got to Fail

            I have in my files a bulletin article written several years ago by a fellow named Coy Roper. It is so good—I thought I would pass it along in its entirety. Be encouraged!

            Baseball fans are all talking about the new base-stealing record set by Ricky Henderson of the Oakland A's. The last time I heard, he had stolen 122 bases, breaking Lou Brock's one-season record of 118, with more than a month still left in the season!

            But before he set that new record, he set another; he broke Ty Cobb's old record of being thrown out 38 times in one season, when he was thrown out for the 39th time in 1982 in a game with the Tigers!

            And that reminded me that Babe Ruth not only held the career record for home runs for many years; he also held (and still holds) the career record for strikeouts!

            And the moral of the story? To succeed much, you've got to try much--and expect to fail often. The preachers who make the most mistakes are the preachers who preach most often. The personal workers who have the greatest number of failures are also the personal workers who win the most souls. Don't quit just because you get "thrown out"; it's those who try often and fail sometimes that end up succeeding.

Climb the Mountain with God

            You’ve probably seen this before:

Lost Job-age 23

Defeated for Legislature-age 23

Failed in business-age 24

Elected to legislature-age 25

Sweetheart died-age 26

Nervous breakdown-age 26

Defeated for Speaker-age 29

Defeated for Congress-age 34

Elected to Congress-age 37

Lost re-nomination-age 39

Rejected as Land officer-age 40

Defeated for Senate-age 45

Defeated for Senate-age 49

Elected President-age 51

            Abraham Lincoln knew little success in his life, but when he succeeded, he succeeded well. However, his life serves as a reminder that much of life is NOT succeeding. Most of life is climbing the mountain, with some of that climb being imperceptible. A temporary portion of the journey can even be descending the mountain. Nevertheless, we continue the journey.

            I think the most satisfying climb is one traveling with God.

            Climb the mountain with God.