The best judge of the character of an organization is not what it does
when things are going smooth, or easy. Anyone can be optimal when
things are going great. Like the ball coach who is magnanimous in
victory, the politician who can give a good speech when the polls are
looking good, the VP who has a good speech for the stockholders and
employees when profits are up.
No, the real test comes when things go bad. That is often when the
ball coach suddenly laments that they don’t have quality players, the
VP blames a “negative market environment,” and the politician
suddenly never had any real power to effect change and is just a
victim of everything else, losing all concepts of capability.
We walk in difficult times, and this is when we find out who we really
are. Do we admit our mistakes, our failings, and work to learn from
them so we can be better? Or do we blame everyone but ourselves,
thereby assuring that we will not grow at all, and inevitably make the
same mistakes over and over again?
As Christians, we are blessedly relieved of the need to pretend: Christ
has told us that we are sinners, and if we deny that, we are liars. So
when we struggle, we know there is no need to obfuscate… all it does
is deny us the opportunity to grow.
Pastor Dan
