There's Hope for a 97-Pound Weakling

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." — Helen Keller

Most people prefer to take the easy way in life. Don’t believe me? Try using Mapquest or Google Maps to ask for directions. Either app will give you the quickest route by time, the shortest route by miles, and the cheapest route by tolls. No one asks for the scenic route or the longest and most time-consuming way to get to their destination.

Take a trip to Disney World and instead of waiting in line, everyone clamors for what used to be called the FastPass System. Its new name is Lightning Lane… and buying it allows you to jump to the head of the line for the most popular rides.

As Helen Keller pointed out in today’s quote, some things can’t be rushed. Building trust and healing wounds – whether they are physical, emotional, or spiritual – fit that category. So does developing character.

Here is how Charles Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers”, put it about 150 years ago…

“Worldly ease is a great enemy to faith; it loosens the joints of holy zeal and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut; affliction provides this service for believing souls. While the wheat sleeps comfortably in the husk, it is useless to us; it must be threshed out of its resting place before its value can be known. Thus it is good that the Lord tests the righteous, for it causes them to grow rich toward God.”

"Trials,” Spurgeon concluded, “teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of."

When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of comic books. Some of my favorites featured Superman, Captain America, Aquaman and Iron Man. Often, inside the back cover, there was an ad for a bodybuilding program sponsored by Charles Atlas. The ad led you to believe that you could be transformed from a 97-pound weakling into a strongman by following Atlas’s “Dynamic Tension” program.

The ads had titles such as "The Insult that Made a Man out of Mac" and "The Insult That Turned a 'Chump' Into a Champ"… and they were extremely effective in getting teenage boys to send away for Atlas’s book. Even professional boxers like Max Baer, Joe Louis, and Rocky Marciano subscribed to Atlas’s training regimen.

It turns out that both Helen Keller and Charles Atlas were right: It takes trials and tension to create true strength,

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President