Dawn Staley is the head coach of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team. She is a former professional and Olympic basketball player, and is now considered to be one of the best current college basketball coaches. In a recent interview she was asked about what she looks for in potential recruits to determine if they will be a good fit for her team. She responded: “do they know how to do hard things?” She went on to say that you find out what kind of person a player is once you see how she responds to adversity.
If you live long enough, you encounter hard things. If you spend any amount of time reading the Bible, then you quickly realize that hard things are not new. Folks have experienced hard things ever since Genesis 3 when God’s good creation was invaded by sin. I always think about doing hard things when I read the section of the Bible referred to as the “minor prophets.” These can be some of the hardest books in the Bible to read, and they are written by guys who lived in some hard times and had to do some really hard things.
One of my favorite passages in the minor prophets comes at the end of Habakkuk:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk makes a long list of hard things in this passage, but his response to these hard things is a lesson for us. Rather than complain or quit, he looks to the Lord. He does not muster up his own strength, but rather finds strength by remembering who God is and praising him even in the face of hard things. What hard thing are you facing today? Whatever it is, ask the Lord to help you find your strength and joy in him in the midst of it.
Ben