Have you ever seriously watched a high-wire (tightrope) walker perform their talent and step with what appears to be effortlessly foot-to-foot on a small diameter wire or rope while perched dangerously high over a huge chasm? What a great feat of being able to keep one’s real balance, to be able to negotiate trying circumstances and environments, to be able to handle yourself and stay totally focused on the task at hand and still perform under great danger and stress.
I will tell you that I have come to learn that there are two great tests that a person will encounter while living their own life that can and most usually will disturb their real balance and its attendant happiness and/or misery. Each of these two tests carries with it its own set of problems and consequences. One of the tests is adversity. Solomon wrote about it in the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 24, verse 10 NKJV:
(10) “If you faint in the day of adversity,
Your strength is small.”
The same verse in the New Living Bible translation reads:
(10) “You are a poor specimen if you can’t stand the pressure of
adversity.”
In other words, If you are weak in a crisis, you are weak indeed.
God’s Word is very specific. When adversity strikes, no matter the cause, you are to stand against it. You are not to cave-in to it. You are to take immediate personal action to recover from the unfortunate circumstances.
Adversity, although painful, is a good test of your own resiliency.
Adversity is a good test of your ability to:
(1) cope with circumstances, events, and other people and their actions.
(2) stand back up on your feet after you have been knocked down.
(3) recover from an unfortunate situation or other misfortune.
The other side of the “scales of balance” within and around your own life is
prosperity. This side of the balance I will tell you is a much tougher and more difficult test to pass.
Scottish author, historian, and essayist, Thomas Carlyle said this regarding prosperity:
“Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who
can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand
adversity.”
It has been my personal experience throughout my athletic, military, professional, and business careers that there are very few men or women who can live a life of luxury…who can, all the while, keep their moral, spiritual, and financial equilibrium…as they are balancing on the elevated high wire of success.
God has a true sense of humor and He is always teaching us through people and events surrounding us. The ironic thing about human nature is that mankind seems to be able to accept and handle an unplanned sudden demotion or missed opportunity much better than a sizable promotion, advancement, or elevated authoritative position of recognition or leadership.
In my personal opinion, this phenomenon can be best explained by a simple truth of life. Whenever adversity strikes a person or group of people, its effect is to quickly make the living of your life rather simple. Your need soon becomes one of survival.
Conversely whenever prosperity occurs, your life quickly becomes very complicated. With prosperity comes greater demands on you. Your needs soon become very numerous, and most usually extremely complex.
Invariably, your integrity is put to the test. Thomas Carlyle was right…There is about one in a hundred who can dance to the tune of success without dearly paying the piper called Compromise.
There isn’t a thing inherently wrong with being successful and wealthy. The events, achievements, failures, promotions, and all successes that occur in your life were most always allowed to occur to and for you by God Himself. This truth of life is clearly told to us in the Holy Scriptures, in the Book of Psalms, Chapter 75, verses 6-7 NKJV:
(6) “For exaltation comes neither from the east
Nor from the west nor from the south.
(7) But God is the judge:
He puts down one,
And exalts another.”
You see, friends, the truth of the matter is…that it is the Lord’s sovereign right to demote as well as to promote. It is not really our own position or right to know why or to demand of God why He chooses whom. You are either in submission to God or you aren’t. Always remember, it is The Creator of the Universe who is in charge of everything,….not you!
Trying times or times of great exaltation will effect you and your activities in either a good or a bad manner and way; and they will cause you to act or not to act dependent on the type of situation you are faced with and are attempting to negotiate; or they will impact your thoughts and choices either positively or negatively. The things, people, and events that occur to us, with us, for us, or against us always have an influence upon the way we make decisions and choices, the methods we employ to go about our business every day, and the ways and means we use to interact with strangers, friends, casual acquaintances, family, and relatives.
There is ample proof within the Holy Scriptures that some people have been snatched from obscurity and exalted to prosperity without losing their integrity. There are also examples of very prosperous individuals who kept their balance of integrity all the while they were walking the high wire of success. As a matter of fact, most of the people chosen by God to be great examples of leaders of other people started out in total obscurity and poverty before they were chosen and elevated to be one of God’s greatest servants. Please permit me to share with you three such men:
Job was a rancher in the land of Uz when God prospered him and granted
him total financial independence (see Job 1 : 1-5).
Daniel was elevated from a lowly nobody in a labor camp in Babylon to a
national commander in charge of one-third of the entire kingdom
(see Daniel 6 : 1-2).
Amos was promoted from a common sharecropper laborer in the land of
Tekoa, all the way up to a prophet of God at Bethel, the royal
residence of the king (see Amos 7 : 14-15).
Not one of these people lost his integrity while in the process of becoming highly successful and prosperous. Their great achievements did not distract them from accomplishing the purposes to which God had called them.
Of course for every good, there always is an equal and offsetting bad. But the bad is not a permanent situation. Better choices, confession of sin, God’s forgiveness of that confessed sin, and personal repentance therefrom is always the way back to recovery from foolish decisions. The classic example is King David. It is all laid out in the last three verses (70-72) of Psalm 78 NKJV:
(70) “He also chose David His servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds;
(71) From following the ewes that had young,… He brought him,
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
(72) So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his
heart,
And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”
Let’s look at the facts surrounding the selection process of David all the way back to his humble and youthful beginnings. As God scanned the Judean landscape in search of Saul’s successor, He found a youth, a mid-teenager, who possessed a unique combination of the humility of a servant, the heart of a shepherd, and the hands of skill.
By David’s thirtieth birthday he had achieved and held the highest office in his own nation, King. He now held the keys to a vast treasury, unlimited personal privileges, and enormous power.
How did he handle and use such great prosperity? He shepherded the nation according to the integrity of his heart. King David was indeed what Thomas Carlyle described as “a one in a hundred individual.”
Are you such a person?
Men and women who conduct their lives with total unswerving and unwavering integrity always stand out from the masses of humanity. Whenever they give their word,…they keep it. They honestly do what it is that they said they would do.
Integrity means you are verbally trustworthy.
When bills come due, you pay them on time.
Integrity means you are financially dependable.
When you are tempted to mess around with an illicit sexual affair,
you resist.
Integrity means you are morally pure.
You don’t fudge or cheat because you are able to cover your tracks. Neither do you ever fake it simply because you are now a big-shot or are greater or higher than those you are leading.
Being successful doesn’t give anybody:
(1) the right to ever call wrong…right, or
(2) the okay to ever say that something’s okay if it isn’t okay.
Adversity or Prosperity, are both difficult tests on our individual personal balance in life.
To achieve and maintain a balanced life through Adversity,…Resiliency is required.
But to stay balanced through Prosperity,…Integrity is demanded.
Please remember that the stiff stinging wind of compromise is always a lot more devastating than the sudden jolt of misfortune. This is the exact reason why walking on a wire is always harder than standing up in a storm.
Height has a strange way of disturbing our individual balance.
Peace and Love to All of You……………………….Poppa Bear