Learning to be Thankful Despite Adversity

I saw the motivational slogan for the first time when I walked into the Baylor University football locker room as a freshman. No one had to explain what the words meant. Anyone who has ever participated in a sport knows there are times when things don’t go your way, when you are beaten down after a long, hot practice, or maybe you are hurt, or have been demoted from the first team. It may even cross your mind that the pain and humiliation are not worth it. Why not just throw in the towel? For competitors, however, the greater the challenge, the more determined they are. In other words, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

It’s not just athletes who face severe trials. Everyone at one time or another has faced difficult challenges and been tempted to quit—the boss is unfair, school is too hard, I’ve tried but I can’t lose weight, the assignment is impossible, and on and on it goes. The slogan, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” reminds us to hang in there, to not give up. Easier said than done, right? Sometimes the path forward appears too fraught with obstacles. Yet, there are countless people who have faced incredible problems, seemingly impossible tasks, and refused to give in to defeat.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison failed hundreds of times before he successfully perfected the incandescent electric light bulb. Over and over again, one experiment after another, all to no avail. Think how discouraged he must have grown. To have worked so hard, spent countless hours in his laboratory, yet success was frustratingly elusive. But when the going got tough, Edison refused to give in and kept going.  

Franklin Roosevelt was a wealthy, talented, ambitious young man. But he was also brash and arrogant. At the age of 39 he was stricken with infantile paralysis (polio) and would never walk again. He used braces to hold himself upright, but his legs could not support his weight. He would remain a cripple the rest of his life.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Many scholars who have studied the life of Roosevelt are convinced that had FDR not contracted polio, he would never have made it to the White House. His polio softened him, made him more human, sympathetic to the pain and difficulties of others. One of his great virtues was that he was able to identify with the common man, a virtue he probably never would have attained had it not been for his illness. When the going got tough, Roosevelt kept going.

The popular author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling, failed over and over again, too. She writes, “By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.” Later, she came to realize that her failures were “a gift” that taught her about herself and paved the way for her successful writing career. When the going got tough, J.K. Rowling kept going.

Failure is never permanent unless we allow it to be. When we face difficulties, they can be a powerful teacher. Adversity can bring the best out of us, qualities surface that we never knew we had, if we just keep at it. From our mistakes and disappointments we can grow into more productive human beings, more sensitive, caring, and compassionate.  

There is a wonderful letter in the New Testament that the Apostle Paul penned to a young, troubled man who was just starting out in ministry. Titus was an inexperienced pastor who had been sent by Paul to the island of Crete. Apparently, Paul’s letter was in response to an earlier letter that he had received from Titus.

Unfortunately, we do not have the letter that Titus wrote to Paul, but it’s not hard to reconstruct the contents of Titus’ letter by closely reading Paul’s reply. Obviously, Titus was asking, no, begging, Paul to give him a new pastoral assignment. He was fed up with his church in Crete. He was hitting his head against a brick wall by trying to minister to these stubborn and rebellious people (Titus 1:10).

By studying Paul’s letter it becomes clear that Crete was an extremely challenging place to minister and Paul acknowledged as much. Paul wrote to the frustrated Titus that he knew the “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). But notice Paul’s response to his “son” in ministry (Titus 1:5): I know Crete is difficult, he wrote, I know the people there are unruly and undisciplined and that’s the very reason I sent you there, so that you can straighten things out (Titus 1:5).  

Paul was aware that Crete was an onerous place to work and understood that Titus was struggling, but Paul didn’t let him off the hook. Instead, Paul told Titus that he was the right person for the job. I sent you to Crete, Paul reminds Titus, because I knew it was a tough church, and I knew the people there would stretch you in every way possible! But that’s why you are there!

Paul was no stranger to adversity himself. He had been in prison, flogged, exposed to death, shipwrecked, stoned and the list of dangers goes on and on (2 Cor. 11:23-30). But in spite of his adversities, Paul could give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18). Paul was not some naïve Pangloss (See Voltaire’s Candide), who unrealistically faced the world, for he knew that even in the worst circumstances, something good can come.

The most interesting people are the ones who have gone through trying times, got beaten down by life, but refused to give in to despair. They grew from their failures, learned from their mistakes, and found inner strength through their weaknesses. It is natural to try and avoid adversity, but when hardships inevitably come our way, if we meet them with perseverance and faith, we may find a reason to give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving!