Who Would Have Imagined? (Joe Widick)

Joe Widick was my Principal when I taught at Friendship Christian School in Tennessee. He also was one of our elders of my congregation and as good a man as you will ever meet. Joe will be the author of fifteen of the devotionals while I am in China. You will be a fan!

Could you imagine the headline in the sports page that read: “Jockey Beats Horse over Finish Line.” I am not a horse racing fan, but I did find this headline interesting enough to read the rest of the story. The story went something like this: The jockey and horse were ahead of the pack by 20 lengths when all of a sudden the horse tripped. When the horse tripped, the surprised jockey was catapulted out of the saddle and over the finish line. His horse that had tripped recovered and followed soon after. Winners! No! The winner was the second horse and jockey who crossed the finish line. Would you believe the name of the second horse to cross the finish line was Slip Up? As the race was being called, the announcer said that the jockey was so far in front that only a freak accident would stop him from winning the race. Guess what, it did.

Have you ever been going along in life all was well and right with your world when suddenly the unexpected happened. The author of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, took note of this when he said, “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). What Solomon was reflecting on is the fact that man is not the master of his destiny, as he so often thinks he is. The truth be known, life is filled with many unpredictable experiences and events. When they appear, they seem like stones dropped into the gears of human ingenuity. A strong healthy man drops dead. A rising young athlete contracts a crippling disease. A person who is financially secure suddenly loses everything in a bad deal.

What is it that you and I can learn from this? One of the first things that jump out to me is that I need not trust in my own strength or my own wisdom or even my own skill. I need to depend on the Lord who alone knows the end from the beginning. God’s perspective of life is always much more complete than the perspective that I have. One individual accurately described life this way: “Living without faith in God is like driving in the fog.” King David penned these words in Psalm 63, showing a need in his life and truth be know, a need in our life. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” As you and I continue to seek God, we will find that the unexpected happening of life are not near as hard to deal with had we not been seeking God.

Prayer Thought: Thank you Lord for being a God that holds the future in your hand. You are in control.