Gordon Macdonald - A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What

A
RESILIENT
LIFE

YOU CAN MOVE AHEAD NO MATTER WHAT

GORDON
MACDONALD

2004 by Gordon MacDonald

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEWINTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacDonald, Gordon, 1939
A resilient life : you can move ahead no matter what / Gordon MacDonald.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7852-7151-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7852-8791-9 (tp)
1. Resilience (Personality trait)Religious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BV4597.58.R47M23 2004
248.4dc22

2004024245

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 12 QW 13 12 11 10 9

To Gail, now my wife of forty-four years (at this
writing). She models all that I have learned about
resilience. And I want the world to know how deep
is my love and respect for her.

And with appreciation to Robert Wolgemuth
(my literary representative), Victor Oliver
(my long-time publisher) and Kristen Lucas (my
editor) who have been my teammates in writing this
book. Their encouragement has kept me going
throughout this project

CONTENTS

I
RESILIENT PEOPLE ARE COMMITTED TO FINISHING STRONG

II
RESILIENT PEOPLE RUN INSPIRED BY A BIG-PICTURE VIEW OF LIFE

III
RESILIENT PEOPLE RUN FREE OF THEWEIGHT OF THE PAST

IV
RESILIENT PEOPLE TRAIN TO GO THE DISTANCE

V
REESILIENT PEOPLE RUN IN THE COMPANY OF A HAPPY FEW

I n the great race of life, there are some Christ-followers who stand out from all the rest. I call them the resilient ones. The further they run, the stronger they get. They seem to possess these spiritual qualities:

They are committed to finishing strong.

They run inspired by a big-picture view of life.

They run free of the weight of the past.

They run confidently, trained to go the distance.

They run in the company of a happy few.

Writing to people whose suffering was so intense that they were in danger of losing confidence in God, the author of the book of Hebrews recalled the adventures of the great Biblical heroesthe men and women of unshakable faith: the first resilient ones. Then visualizing those champions as spectators at the games, he called his readers to the starting line of a great race.

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with...

resilience

... the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb. 12:13)

[And Simon Peter said to Jesus] Go away from me, Lord; Iam a sinful man!.[But] Jesus said to Simon, Dont beafraid; from now on you will catch men. (Luke 5:8,10)

THE WIMP

I n the archives of my mind is a picture of a white bulletin board. It is, or rather was, a simple piece of plywood (two feet by five feet, maybe) nailed to two vertical four-by-four-foot posts. Embedded in its surface were perhaps a thousand spent staples, representing lots of pages that were at one time or another affixed to the board. This bulletin board was near the top of the turn in a dirt running track at the Stony Brook School, a college preparatory school located on the north shore of Long Island, New York.

The information pinned to the board each weekday at noon played an important part in my life for the three years that I was a Stony Brook student.

Some thought that the white board was the personal property of Marvin W. Goldberg (MWG was his familiar shorthand signature), Stony Brooks once-upon-a-time track and cross-country coach. I can see him now (and this is almost fifty years later) as he left his Hegeman Hall officejust before the lunchtime belland walked to the track. In one hand would be several sheets of paper. In the other, a stapler to tack the papers to the board.

On the papers, written in the blue ink that flowed from the broad point of Goldbergs fountain pen: individual programs for each member of his teamwarm-ups, workouts, and technical development.

Athletes whose names, like mine, began with M, were usually on the third or fourth of the seven sheets that Goldberg would fasten to the white board. Curious, I would often trot down to the track as soon as the coach had gone his way to get a peek at what hed planned for me to do that day.

If I could not get down to the white bulletin board myself, other teammates would. At lunch you would hear the trackmen talking among themselves: Youre not going to believe what Goldbergs got for you today! or Are you ever in deep trouble! No one ever said, What a wonderful afternoon were going to have on the track! Goldbergs going to run our legs off, and I cant wait.

At three thirty the track team (or cross-country team, depending upon the season) began its workouts. First came the nonnegotiable warm-ups, then the workouts designed to build stamina and speed, and finally the technical work: perfecting length of stride, relay practice, discussion on race strategy, etc.

The workouts, each about two hours in length,were carefully planned by Coach Goldberg. They were not created on the spot. Everything was in alignment with a personal plan conceived for each athlete months (if not a year) before. If you had asked him why you were doing certain kinds of time trials on a snowy Thursday afternoon in January, he might say, Reaching this goal now will make it possible for you to run a 400 meters in [here he would name a certain time] at the Penn Relays in late April.And then hed add,Everything were doing today will have its payoff in late May. Youll see.

Baton exchanges between relay-team members were a good example of technical development: twenty-five minutes of top-speed baton handoffs. Exhausting! The coach repeatedly reminded relay-team members that close races were won or lost in the handoff box, and this justified striving to achieve perfect timing during the exchanges. Dropping a baton in one of those handoffs? Unthinkable! That could make Marvin Goldberg an unhappy man.