Setbacks
Setbacks
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is one of the most popular adventure novels in history. A young Crusoe set off on a sea voyage in search of a life of adventure. After enduring a shipwreck in which he was the sole survivor, he suffered a chain of misfortunes.
Crusoe found himself cast away on a remote island. He was repeatedly chased by wild animals and hounded by belligerent local people. He endured severe bouts of loneliness and depression. During a particularly painful time, he started to panic at his devastating predicament. He then decided to write a two-column list juxtaposing the “Good” versus “Evil” aspects of his ordeal.
Under the Evil column, he wrote, “I am cast upon a horrible desolate island, void of all hope of recovery.” He countered this with a Good statement: “But I am alive, and not drowned, as all my ship’s company was.” Crusoe continued, “I have no soul to speak to, or relieve me. But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that I have gotten out so many necessary things as will either supply my wants, or enable me to supply myself even as long as I live.” And the list goes on.
Crusoe closed his compare-and-contrast experiment with these words: “Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it.”1
In spite of his circumstances, he made a conscious decision to keep believing the best for his future. Even in his barren place, Crusoe cultivated a better life for himself until the time he was rescued.
“We all experience setbacks. We all have the opportunity to choose how we will allow these misfortunes to influence our faith and our futures.”
Will difficulties and disappointments crush us? Or will we turn our adversities into something more powerful than themselves, something that can beneficially impact our lives and the lives of others?
Great leaders endure great challenges, but the outcome is always the same.
Each one of them transcends his or her oppressive circumstances with a deeper and more refined faith.
During a devastating, yet particularly pivotal season in his life, Norman Vincent Peale, author of the landmark book, The Power of Positive Thinking, was venting to his wife while they sat on a London park bench. He voiced a litany of the discouragement, negativity, and hopelessness he was feeling.
His wife challenged him in response to his depressing monologue. She told him he needed a conversion, a deep encounter with God. “You are not only my husband, but you are also my pastor,” she told him. “In the latter department . . . I am becoming increasingly disappointed in you. I hear you from the pulpit talking about faith and trust in God’s wondrous power. But now I hear in you no faith or trust at all. . . . You need to be converted.”2
Peale then began to pray. He confessed his weaknesses and had an encounter with God that could be described as nothing less than supernatural.
It was a defining moment in his life.
Peale also wrote about his natural tendencies for stress and tension. Picture that! This positive-thinking pioneer did not wake up one day with an unwavering, optimistic attitude and life outlook. No! He developed it through wrestling with a propensity for stress and tension. The positive attitude he spent his lifetime promoting was birthed through suffering in a deep place in his soul.
When I entered the ministry some thirty years ago, I was young and full of faith, much of it, I’m sure, naïve. Over the years, I have experienced the ebb and flow of life. Like most leaders, I’ve had my share of heartbreak. I’ve made stupid decisions. I’ve been rejected by supposed friends. I’ve had tremendous setbacks. Frankly, at times I’ve wondered whether I’d make it to the future I knew God had planned for me.
But here I am, by God’s grace, all these years later. And I’m more excited and realistically idealistic than ever! I love God more deeply. I love my family more passionately. I love opportunities to serve more fervently. And I imagine more audaciously.
Max De Pree wrote, “Leaders are like small boys at the end of summer.”3 Small boys at the end of summer are all nicked and bruised, sunburned and bloodied, but unbowed and always ready for more. Show me to the future! Give me something to live for, believe in, and fight for!
Who’s with me?
Have you ever made a Good/Evil list like Crusoe’s? What did you learn from that experience? Drop a comment and tell us about it.
1 Daniel Defoe, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, ed. Wilbur L. Cross (New York: Henry Hold, 1911), 75-76
2 Norman Vincent Peale, This Incredible Century (Carol Stream, IL.: Tyndale, 1993), 129
3 Max De Pree, Leadership Jazz: The Essential Elements of a Great Leader (New York: Doubleday, 2008), 110-11
Adapted from Live Ten (Thomas Nelson) by Terry A. Smith. All rights reserved.
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