A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

2 Corinthians 4:8, 9, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”  In the book, A Home Forum Reader, Glenn Wasson related a simple experience that had a profound effect on him.  He had been clearing brush in the mountains for several hours when he took a lunch break.  But his quite meal was disturbed by the torments of a persistent bee buzzing around his head.  He swatted it to the ground and stepped on it. But to his amazement, the bee emerged from the sand to renew its attack.  This time Glenn ground the insect into the sand.  But eventually he noticed the bee burrowing out from its sandy grave with crumpled wings attached.  Nonetheless, the bee stretched out first the right wing, then running its legs along the crippled left wing it tried to recover.  The damage, though, seemed irreparable.  Glenn, being a veteran pilot, knew a good deal about wings. He concluded that the bee would never fly again.  The bee, however, kept working with its wing, furiously trying to press out the crinkled spots, stretch out the torn spots, and increased the tempo of its fluttering.  It managed an elevation of three inches before crashing back to earth. Undeterred, it tried again, and again.  At last, the bee took off, and buzzed away.  It is not the absence of trials that makes a person successful.  It is the unwillingness to give up in spite of the trials.  Our reaction to adversity can either be one of resignation to the “sandy grave” of defeat, or the determination that being “down,” does not mean that we are “out.”  We do not have to accept failure as being final.  We all experience setbacks in life.  From time to time we all feel as if we have been knocked down, stepped on, and ground into the dirt.  We must be resolved that we will not allow temporal difficulties to dictate the final outcome of our lives.  Today, burrow out of what seeks to bury you with adversity; and with resilience, purpose that you will victoriously recover and soar once again into the triumph that is yours with this new day.