Pastor Mitch McDonald
Mike Swider has served as the football coach at Wheaton College for 24 years, now he is somewhat of a speaker similar to a football motivational speaker you could find for hire on different internet sites. Every year, he writes out a theme for the team to serve as motivation and encouragement. For the 2019 season, he penned an amazing article titled “Pound the Rock.” In essence, the article talked about the Stonecutters Credo: “When nothing seems to help, I go to the stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it splits in two-we know that it was not that last blow that split the stone, but all those that came before it.” Coach Swider went on to say that “anything that is sustainable: a good marriage, your career, your faith, is a result of developing the charter to make patient, long-term, hard choices instead of short-term ones that are driven by instant gratification. There are no shortcuts to sustained success, and it’s never too late to start.” Most of us quit when things become uncomfortable. We forget the fact that we must persevere through the hard, the pain, and the exhaustion to make it to the next level. We live in a world obsessed with eliminating struggle.
Today, I had the chance to visit with a Sun Lakes resident named Rich. Rich shared part of his amazing life story with me. He grew up in the Midwest in a home with nine family members. Rich was not encouraged, but was told that he would do everything that his brothers and sisters did. Quitting was not an option. He played golf, football, baseball, and was on the wrestling team. He went on to college and then to graduate school and received his law degree. What makes this a memorable story is that Rich was born with only one arm. His mother taught him that nothing in life is free, and you work hard for the things you really want.
Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize, for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Bottom line, no matter our age, social status, or anything, never stop pressing forward!
Sun Lakes Community Church is an interdenominational church. Our worship service is at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday morning at the Sun Lakes Chapel, 9240 E. Sun Lakes Blvd. N., across the street from the Sun Lakes Country Club building. For more information, call our office at 480-895-9147 or visit our website at www.sunlakescommunitychurch.org.
All are welcome!