Reflections from the Home Team - August 1, 2020

 

Challenges are what make life interesting…and overcoming them is what makes them meaningful. Challenges are also made to make us stronger, and I’ve learned not to run away from them, but rather to run over them!

 

Greetings from Cedar Falls,

 

The past six months have been difficult for all of us…whether challenged with Covid 19, other serious health issues, job security, family issues or countless other challenges, you probably would agree that even the most enthusiastic person you know needs some encouragement from time to time. Perhaps that person is you! I know it definitely includes me!! Even with a sound plan and promising outlook, sometimes, life has a way of throwing us curveballs that seem to knock us off balance. Given that, we should all take comfort in something author Jon Gordon recently shared. “So, if you aren’t okay, it’s okay. It’s okay to be scared, frustrated and feel down. You just don’t want to stay there too long and allow these feelings to take you down a spiral staircase of depression and despair. The key is to find the optimism, hope and faith to keep going and create a better future.”

 

Life certainly has its ups and downs. I think challenges are bred so that you will appreciate the outcome even more.  Challenges are what make life interesting…and overcoming them is what makes them meaningful. Challenges are also made to make us stronger, and I’ve learned not to run away from them, but rather to run over them! As a farm guy, I know the harvest is always 100 times more than the seed sown, so I’ve learned to get excited and take action when the “seeds” of life’s challenges come my way.

 

That brings me to this reflection. Those of you who have followed me know that I have been dealing with some ongoing side effect issues since my radiation and chemo treatments for cancer back in 2009.  Those issues continue and have escalated in recent months. I will be traveling to Mayo Clinic to attempt to get some resolution to these ongoing issues. This will become my new challenge, and I look forward to overcoming it with the help of my medical team.  As always, when my mind kicks into action during these times I turn to reading and came across a verse in Romans 8:28. 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” 

That Scripture verse brought me some comfort and hope. It says to me that those who love God and are doing their best to obey his commands, even though bad/sad/evil/wicked things will touch our  lives, God will use them to ultimately bring about good, both in our life and in the world.

I recently read a story about Joni Eareckson Tada, an inspirational speaker, author, and singer, who is a quadriplegic who has been confined to a wheelchair for more than 40 years. (kind of puts my struggles into perspective...) When people ask her why God allows suffering, she often says, “God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.” I love this❣️And what does God love? For people to enter into a relationship with himself and become more like Him! 

Romans 8:28 certainly doesn't mean all things will be good... No matter how rose-colored our glasses are, there’s nothing good about cancer, pandemics, suffering or death. Until Jesus returns and conquers Satan once and for all, sin will continue to drag its poisonous tentacles across our world, damaging and destroying everything in its wake.

The truth of Romans 8:28 reminds me that although sin and Satan are powerful, God is more powerful; He is able to redeem and restore anything for our good and his glory. All things may not be good, but God can and will use all things for good.

I recall a discussion I had during treatments at Hope Lodge in Iowa City with a group of fellow cancer patients. One of them told me, “God allows everything into our lives for one of two purposes—either to bring us into a relationship with himself or, if we already know him, to make us more like His Son.”  He was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 35 and he had played college baseball, married his high school sweetheart, and fathered two handsome sons. I really related to him.

Convinced of the truth of Romans 8:28, he chose to believe God had a good plan for his bad cancer. Because he believed God could use even something as destructive as a brain tumor, he responded in faith and trust. “Even though this is not what I planned for my life,” he told us, “I trust God to use it for good.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t survive his battle with cancer, but because he chose to respond in faith and trust, many people, including his younger brother, came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. His cancer wasn’t good, but God used it for good to make him more like Christ and to draw others into a faith relationship with himself.

I think that as long as we live in this world, people will attempt to reconcile God’s sovereignty with humanity’s suffering... Verses like Romans 8:28 assure us that no suffering is wasted, and God is always at work for our good and his glory. When we cannot comprehend why trials come and struggle to imagine that anything good can come from them, we can rest in the security that God is in control and because of this, we can have hope!

Sometimes, I find it difficult to understand how God can bring beauty from the trials of my life. At times I struggle to trust Him with the broken pieces. I know that without faith it is impossible to please Him, and I want to please Him. I want to trust Him. I want Him to make me more like His Son and to use my trials for not only my good, but for His glory. May “God allow what he hates to accomplish what he loves” as I continue my journey.

 

Wishing you each a joy filled day believing in the promise of Romans: 8:28!

Dave

–     Soon to be Released –

 

My website is currently “under construction” as I wait for the release of my new book Reflections from the Home Team… STAYING POSITIVE When Life Throws You a Curve!  I thought you might enjoy an overview of the book which I have shared below prior to it’s release. I will let you know once it is released and when I have completed work on the book’s website. Thanks to each of you for your support as part of my “HOME TEAM” over the years. Your love, support and encouragement have helped carry me through many of the challenges on my life’s journey❣️

 

Book Overview

 

Reflections from the Home Team... STAYING POSITIVE When Life Throws You a Curve! is intended to be a resource you can turn to each day for hope and encouragement as you take on the daily challenges that life may “pitch” your way. The book is a go-to resource for injecting a healthy dose of positivity into your daily life. Positivity has been proven to make a difference in overcoming negativity and adversity, and each reflection in the book examines positive perspectives and approaches to dealing with those life challenges.

 

Since writing Reflections from the Home Team… Go the Distance, and surviving cancer, the author has continued to share encouragement and inspiration for others who may be facing not only serious health issues such as cancer, but other life challenges as well. By processing his cancer journey through writing reflections based on his experiences and the experiences of those he has come into contact with, David Welter has provided hope and comfort for others who may be experiencing similar challenges in their life’s journey.

 

As this book is released, our world has been hit with the “curve ball” of the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected millions, cost hundreds of thousands of lives, ground travel to a standstill, and threatened the global economy unlike anything experienced in generations.  It is a liminal moment where the world teeters on the threshold of hope or despair, winning or losing, great pain or great gain.  Remember, life is like a baseball game; when you think a fastball is coming, you have to be ready to hit the curve!

 

Each reflection includes an encouraging attitude, a spiritual insight and a step to consider which are frequently blended with baseball analogies and metaphors. Life’s challenges are not easy, just as baseball isn’t always easy. The game provides many lessons about success and failure, and those lessons can often be applied in our life journeys. As life’s curveballs and challenges come our way, the author encourages reaching out to our “Home Teams” (both human and divine) for the strength, love, support and comfort needed to meet them.

 

Pastor Brian King writes:

 

“Dave is a teacher and coach at heart who knows the power of a well-spoken and well-timed word.  A voracious reader and lifelong learner, his insights and musings are frequently spiced with the wisdom of theologians like Richard Rohr, pastors like Max Lucado, best-selling authors like Jon Gordon and, of course, baseball greats like Mariano Rivera.  Dave is someone wired by God to look for the teachable moment in every situation, the winning approach to every challenge, and the deeper meaning in every experience.  People are looking for good coaching, sound advice, faithful counsel, and time-tested insights as they approach challenges they’ve never encountered before.  For this reason, I am thankful that my friend, Dave Welter, has been given “the tongue of a teacher”.  Even in this changing, turning, and challenging world, Dave has a word to sustain the weary; a message for “STAYING POSITIVE when life throws you a curve!”