VICTOR, OVER-COMER, MIGHTY WARRIOR, AND MORE THAN A CONQUEROR:OVERCOMING THE PANDEMIC, OR ANY EXCUSE

“In a few hours we’ll all be back in here and you’ll either have reasons or results.”
- Iconic NFL Coach Vince Lombardi
(In the locker room to his players before a game)

    My freshmen year in high school, I started on the wrestling team but promptly lost my first few matches. Each time I failed to win, I had a very, very good “reason.”
   Finally, my friend Brett, the best wrestler on the team said, “Those are just a bunch of excuses!” My reply, of course, was, “Those aren’t excuses. They’re really what happened.” He answered, “I know. That’s what an excuse is.” At the time; I hated him for that. Thankfully, I stopped complaining and making excuses and eventually started winning matches.
   Years later when I was wrestling in college, some of my teammates and I were late to a 7:00 a.m. winter wrestling practice. It was another miserable, frozen morning in Albany, NY getting up to train while all of the other students were home for Christmas sleeping in. The snow drifts were literally six feet high and had buried the car we were taking.
   When we walked into the wrestling room, the coach told us we had to start doing stair sprints as punishment for being late. After 90 minutes of stairs, I asked the coach when we could stop. Sitting in his chair he said, “When I get tired.” He added, “Don’t be late!”
   Defending myself, I yelled, “But coach, it took us half an hour to unbury our car.”
   His reply, “Winners don’t make excuses. You should have started earlier.” At the time, I hated him for that. Yet, about a decade later, as I had to confront the losses and the storms of life, I finally understood my friend’s and my coach’s advice. If you want to be a success, you have to develop the ability to make it happen—no excuses.
   The world doesn’t accept excuses, only results. Win or lose, late or on time, it’s your fault – despite the environment or circumstances! If you’re like me, right now you’re saying, “I hate Dr. Ben for that.”
   I know these people exist, but I’ve never met anyone with an easy, overnight success story. Nearly all of those that have accomplished the things we all want in life managed to make them happen in spite of, and not because of, the environment they experienced. Most have had to deal with deadly opponents, six-foot high snow drifts, and global meltdowns yet they made no excuses and instead focused on how to overcome.
   The fact is that physical limitations, “bad luck,” Covid-19, genetic shortcomings, crazy kids, hectic schedules, tough classes, bad bosses, ex-spouses, impolite neighbors, or injustice are truly challenging, but only excuses if you’ve used them to explain why you haven’t been winning in some critical area of your life.
   Just look at the description of Christ’s circumstances: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” In the end, He still got the job done – and is continuing to get it done through you today.

With God, all things are possible,

Dr. Ben