By 
“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
“It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but about how you play the hand.”
Each of the above statements is a familiar saying in our society, a well-used phrase about making the best of a bad situation. We all have had to do this at one time or another—make lemonade when life has given us lemons.
Each one of us knows stories of people who have overcome enormous adversity and made great work of the worst of times.
An example that comes to mind is Jim Abbott. Jim was a former Major League pitcher in the ’90s; but Abbott was not a typical Major League baseball player. He was born without a right hand. From a young age he loved baseball. As he got older, he wanted to play professionally. Of all the things Abbott could do without a right hand, no one thought that pitching in the major leagues would be one of them.
Abbott did not let his disability stop him. He became a star pitcher and quarterback in high school. He was so successful, he received an offer to pitch at the University of Michigan where he led the Wolverines to two Big Ten championships and was selected the number 8 pick overall in the 1988 Major League Baseball draft. Abbott was drafted by the California Angels and played 10 years in the major leagues.
When he was pitching, Abbott would rest his glove on the end of his right forearm. After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his left hand into the mitt in time to field the ball if necessary. Batting was also not an issue for Jim. He did not have to bat for the majority of his career; but when he was traded to a National League team, he had two hits in 21 times at the plate. His New York Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera said he witnessed Abbott hitting home runs during batting practice at Yankees Stadium.
Abbott was an amazing individual. He once said, “It's not the disability that defines you, it’s how you deal with the challenges the disability presents you with. We have an obligation to the abilities we do have, not the disability.”
Abbott is a wonderful example of someone who made great work of a difficult situation. There have been many others. Inspiring stories exist about people who played a bad hand well, finding the silver lining in a tough situation.
We learn in Scripture that our God works in this same way. We read all throughout His Word that He makes the best work of the worst of situations. The Bible is filled with story after story of His entering into dark and difficult events to bring about the most glorious ends.
This is what our God delights in doing—in taking broken and messed up things and restoring and redeeming them, using them for good, for His purposes, and for His glory.
We are given a great example of this in Acts 8:2-4 (ESV): Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
After God’s great servant Stephen is stoned to death, Christian persecution breaks out all over Jerusalem. We are told that God works in and through this persecution to take His message of salvation out from Jerusalem, into Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). God makes the best of this horror—He uses persecution to spread His Gospel.
God is still at work today; He has not changed.
He shows up in the midst of the mess of this fallen world, touching lives for His purposes, for the sake of His people, and for His own glory. What He calls us to do is simply to trust in Him and be faithful, regardless of the circumstances.
Graham Hale
Graham Hale is the Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Jacksonville, TX. and is a Womenary Professor. He earned a B.A. (Political Science) from the University of Arkansas in 2001 and a M.Div. (Missiology) from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in 2006. Graham is currently pursuing a D.Min. (Pastoral Leadership) at Southwestern Theological Seminary.
