How does one recover from this devastation?

Q: For years I have been in top leadership of a Fortune 500 company and during the pandemic, as though that was not bad enough, my corporate position was eliminated. While I know there are worse things that could happen, this has crushed me and my family, not to mention the embarrassment. How does one recover from this devastation? — C.P.

A: Tom Landry, pictured above, legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys, encouraged many people with his testimony of how God strengthened him throughout his career, but particularly when he was fired while trying to bring his football team back to greatness. One of his biographers wrote: “There would be shaky times, frustrating times that would follow, some of which would have deeply scarred [Landry].” He went on to say how hard it would have been for the coach to recover had his faith in God been weak.

What guided a man like Tom Landry — his faith in God — is the same that has guided many people throughout the centuries who have gone from great highs to great lows. Landry stored up for the storms that are sure to come in life.

Coach Landry was used of God in his post-football career. We shouldn’t be bound by the past and its failures, but neither should we forget its lessons. While disappointment and failure aren’t identical, they often occur together, and both can hold us back from God’s best for our lives. Unless we learn to deal with life’s disappointments, it will rob of us joy and poison our souls. We must also remember that nothing pleases Satan more than when he can convince people that God no longer cares. This is yet another lie from Satan because the Bible teaches that God’s love for us never fails (Lamentations 3:22).

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

©2020 Billy Graham Literary Trust. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

(c)2021 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.