The Difference by Dr. Juan Harrison

Watching Jonah, God’s pick to help save the city of Nineveh, run away in fear and end up in the fish’s belly reminds me of the human frailty of all of us.  Seeing Peter lie and tell people he didn’t know Jesus, seeing David the giant killer run for his life from Saul’s spears, illustrates to all of us the highs and lows we’re all likely to experience.  Jonah gets his courage back and helps save Nineveh.  David becomes a king.  Peter walks on water and becomes an early leader of the modern church.

All of us have this potential for greatness or failure.  The human will is a powerful force.  Refusing to give in to negative circumstances and poor starts to our lives goes a long way toward reaching our dreams.  The fortunate ones are the people who take lemons and create tasty lemonade.  Excuses line the road of life littered by bodies chewed up by life’s cruelty.  Others view the victims of weakness and lack of will and vow to not become road kill on their journey.

It’s difficult to explain why one person finds the will to fight on while more talented, physically, intellectually, or financially blessed people wasted it all, often with the help of substances and alcohol.  The Prodigal Son showed us that you can come back from the pig pen.  His brother didn’t have to suffer the same fate but was wise enough to avoid the pitfalls his brother didn’t.

You and I love success stories of people who turned their lives around after looking in the wrong places.  Sometimes God takes strong people like my coal mine foreman friend Ed who God turned into a human dynamo of spirituality in prison ministries.  Maybe it’s my wife’s Mamaw who took a death sentence of untreated breast cancer and accomplished more spiritually in 9 years than most of us in a lifetime.  You have to wonder what all the lepers and demon possessed people of the Bible did with their lives after Jesus healed them.

I think the saddest stories I hear or see are the ones where people fall back into old habits and old ways.  It seems that the Devil is able to sometimes push that magic button on a person’s weakness and cause them to fall back on the old habits they practiced when stress hit.  Recidivism for drug abusers, child molester, porn addicted, and similar issues is pretty high.  Some people are able to change spiritually and be able to successfully handle life from then on with God’s assistance.  Others aren’t so lucky and often give in to their besetting sin or take their own life.  Either way it’s a dead end road.

Hopefully most of us are still fighting the good fight with the help of family, friends, and the Good Lord.  Count your blessings.  There but for the grace of God go I.  Maybe we’ll be lucky to see another miracle recovery before our eyes.  Even better, maybe we might be a part of helping someone turn it around.