Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they had won over the crowds and stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. After the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.” Acts 14:19-20 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Just get back up and keep on going.”
In 1923, at the Polo Grounds Arena in New York, in a boxing match for the heavyweight championship of the world, the heavyweight prizefighter from Spain, Luis Angel Firpo, also known as “the Wild Bull of the Pampas” threw a crushing left cross that caught the champ, Jack Dempsey, square on the chin. The punch hit Dempsey so hard that it knocked him backwards through the ropes and clear out of the ring. Dempsey ended up crashing on top of the newspaper reporters sitting on the side of the ring, and then he was sprawled on the floor. The back of his head had hit the metal edge of a report’s typewriter, opening a large gash from which he was bleeding profusely.
It was the most vicious knockdown Dempsey had ever experienced in his long boxing career. It was one of the most dramatic that anyone had ever seen in any professional boxing match. But Jack Dempsey won that fight. He got up off the floor, climbed back into the ring, and though wobbly, he managed to protect himself through the rest of that round. During the short break between rounds he gathered himself, steeled his resolve, and at the ringing of the bell to start the second round he came charging out of his corner, unleashed a flurry of tremendous punches, and in 57 seconds Firpo was unconscious on the canvas. The fight was over and Dempsey was the world champion.
The Apostle Paul experienced something like that in Acts 14:19-20. His enemies beat him so badly they thought they had killed him. They dragged his inert body outside the village and tossed it in a ditch. But Paul regained consciousness, mustered the strength to get up and went right back into that same town. Not only was he not dead, but after that incident he went on to have the most successful and fruitful years of his ministry.
Nothing is over until you give up. If you don’t quit then you’re not done. Sometimes life will hit you with a vicious left cross. Sometimes you will take it on the chin and end up on the floor. But you don’t have to stay there. You can get up. And if you do, then you’re not done – and it’s entirely possible that the best and most successful years of your life are still in front of you.
Although I’ve never experienced anything as dramatic as the scenes with Jack Dempsey or the Apostle Paul, I did have my own knockdown, dragged out, totally confused and somewhat frightening time in life. I was fifty-four, my wife had suffered a catastrophic heath issue the year before, I was faced with a major career change in late mid-life, and I had no idea what to do or what the future might hold.
As I look back on that time now, I never could have guessed what a wonderful future God was leading me into. As it turned out the best years of my ministry were still in front of me, I just didn’t know it at the time. There was still a wonderful church to become the Pastor of, there were books to write, mission teams to lead, a jail ministry waiting to begin, new friendships, great vacations, challenging adventures, and much more. But at the time I wasn’t sure if I could even get back up off the floor.
If you would care to read about some of the lessons I learned through that time you can go to my website at www.JimMersereauBooks.com and download the free articles, “I’m a Survivor Too”, and “From Cusco to Crossville – Changing Careers at Fifty-Four”.
When life has knocked you down the thing to do is just get back up and keep on going. It’s entirely possible that the best years of your life are still in front of you. Nothing is over until you give up. If you don’t quit, then you’re not done.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 