GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 5:32
Dealing With Discouragement
There are many discouraging voices. Teachers, for example, told the young Thomas Edison that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He did fail thousands of times in his attempt to invent the light bulb. He later said these weren’t failures, for each time he tried an element that didn’t work, he learned a lesson.
His employer, the Kansas City Star, fired its young cartoonist because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Walt Disney, however, formed his own animation studio and eventually created the Mickey Mouse character, which helped launch the Disney entertainment empire.
His high school coach put 5’10” sophomore Michael Jordan on the junior varsity team. Jordan said this setback motivated him to work and practice relentlessly. By his senior year, though, Jordan grew several inches and improved his game, so he moved to the varsity team.
Coming out of childhood abuse and poverty, broadcast executives told the young Oprah Winfrey that she was “unfit for television.” She refused to give up, however. The executives at WJZ-TV in Baltimore demoted her from a news anchor job, but she took another job as co-host of a talk show called “People Are Talking” in 1978, which was her breakthrough moment. She discovered her natural talent for the talk show format.
As Jesus and his companions walked along the street in Capernaum on their way to pray for the sick daughter of a prominent citizen, Jesus realized someone from the tightly packed crowd had touched his garment, so he asked who touched him. With the crowd pressing around them, his disciples delivered a mild rebuke by stating the obvious—they were all being touched by the crowd, so such a question seemed foolish. “And he was looking around to see who had done this.” (Mark 5:32)
Ignoring the critique of his disciples, and probably the stunned response of the crowd, Jesus continued to look for the person who touched him. He could have, of course, shrugged his shoulders and walked on—that was one possible response to rejection or criticism. He refused to give in, though, and continued to look for the one person in the multitude whose touch was different from the rest.
Surrender or press on—two responses to opposition. A choice.
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