Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday September 17, 2007

Do you know the chances of a good bowler "rolling" a perfect game? 225,000 to one!! The pressure is so great that one man fainted when he reached this Everest of bowling. Another man down to the final frame, right on the golden edge, became so stressed he packed his equipment and walked out never to bowl again.

When I was a kid I worked in a Bowling Alley after school and on weekends. To say this was a challenging job is understatement. Not mentally, for in order to do the job one of the requirements was that you have a low IQ and had at least a slight death wish. Working two lanes at a time was the norm and on most nights we would work three lanes setting the pins. It was not unusual to look up from the task and see a bowling ball just before it hit the pins. Bruises and cuts were par for the evening. I recall one boy, Dippy Cebula, got a broken leg and limped the rest of his life. Concussions, black eyes and good cussings out also were fringe benefits. Two of the people I knew from my labor of love, (love of money) Tom McDaniel Sr. and Tom Jr, with whom I attended school from the first grade, are in the 300 perfect game club. I had a tendency to hang around greatness.

The point in all of this is to hopefully point out that we don't need to be so mean when someone has "rolled" a near perfect game and then blows it. Stress does strange things to people. It is true that many folks perform much better under pressure, those who are the best at this in the athletic world are paid very large amounts and receive the accolades of their fans. Of others it is said, "Pressure gets him." Most people who think they could sink the putt with several million dollars on the line have never tried to sink one with a thousand dollars at stake. I was personal friends with a man who could whip anyone in three states shooting straight pool as long as there was no real money on the table. I watched him call every shot and run the table seven times. When big time pool sharks would be in town with thousands of dollars on the table he could not make three shots in a row. He could shoot pool, but he was not a pressure player.

More married couples would celebrate their fiftieth anniversary if marriage was pressure free. Most children would have ideal childhoods if no pressure were present. About any former high school football player can perform fantastically from the Sunday afternoon couch as he heaps criticism on the TV players. But, as life demonstrates most people really cannot handle pressure and they do strange things when the real pressure is turned up.

Too often when the chips are down and Mr./Mrs. Average Christian are faced with a pressure situation; well you have heard about Peter and the ear of Malchus? Peter's response when a girl remarked; "You are one of them for your speech betrays you." It helps when the person who has dropped the ball simply states, "I blew it, I am sorry" and gets on with life. 1John 1:9 is in the Bible for these moments. To make excuse exacerbates the negative impact and causes much grief to the person and the persons friends.

I have used a little saying for many years that has been a great help to me when I face pressure situations:

"With Christ I am tougher than the tough things of life."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit

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