“No mountain means no mountain peak. No setback means no comeback, and a comeback is yours for the taking. Yes, I’m saying what you think I’m saying: boll weevils make us better. This is the anthem of the story of Esther.”- Max Lucado
“Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration.”- Esther 9:20-22 (NIV)
In Chapter 10 (“A Purim People”) of Made for This Moment, Max Lucado talks about a statue in the middle of Enterprise, AL. A Greek woman extends her marble arms high above her head. In her hands she holds a bowl. And standing in that bowl is a boll weevil. Because, in 1916, a seed seller named H. M. Sessions noticed how the boll weevil routinely destroyed cotton, Alabama’s cash crop. Thus, Sessions knew he must act.
However, as Sessions traveled through Virginia and North Carolina, he observed the peanut fields. As a result, he learned that boll weevils failed to affect or damage peanuts. Consequently, Max quips, farmers jumped on the peanut bus and rode that bus straight to the bank.
Therefore, Pastor Lucado counsels, don’t let bad news do you in or fall victim to the voices of panic and chaos. Because your good God has a good plan for you, revealed in His good book. Tomorrow’s conquest springs from today’s confusion and crisis.
In conclusion, Max exhorts:
“Take God at his word. . . . Reframe the way you see this season of winter. Recast the struggle for what it is, an opportunity for God to do again what he does best: flip a story on its head and resurrect life out of death. Boll weevils are no match for our good Father.”
Today’s question: How have life’s setbacks made you better? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Meditate less on the mess”
