Guidelines For Living

Harold Sala: Take a break from your busy schedule and join Harold Sala for Guidelines for Living.

Harold Sala: Adam Bishop was writing his bicycle with a friend when he was swept into a flood channel which had been swollen to overflowing by rains. When the alarm was sounded, rescuers frantically tried to save the lad, who was holding onto a log screaming, "Help me, help me!"

As Adam was swept along by the current of the floodwaters over an eight-mile stretch of river, rescuers repeatedly tried to save the boy, some dangling from bridges, risking their own lives as they tried to snatch him from danger. A television camera crew captured rescuers throwing a flotation advice that was within inches of his outstretched hands, only to be swept away by the current beyond his reach.

In spite of the heroic attempts to save the lad, the rescuers failed. The water was just racing, flying with lots of debris and logs and stuff, said Robert Yeager, who had photographed the boy's attempted rescue.

As I viewed the video of the teenager with his hands outstretched only inches away from help and safety, I couldn't help thinking, surely with the next throw of the flotation ring he'll be saved, and the grim, frightened expression on his face will turn to rejoicing. But the efforts did not work. So close to being saved, only to be lost.

What made this drama especially painful to watch was the fact that Adam was within inches of being rescued. Both the lad and the waters and those trying to save him were doing their utmost, but their best wasn't quite enough.

There's a great deal of difference between failing because you tried and your best efforts were not enough, and failing because you didn't try hard enough. Far too often, we give up too soon and the result is failure.

I'm thinking of a certain farmer who became discouraged trying to eke out a living on a rather desolate piece of land which he had farmed for years. Thinking that the land which had been in the family for many years would always be worthless, he sold his farm for a mere pittance, barely enough to pay his debts, and drove away from the old homestead.

Within a year, however, from the time the old farmer grew discouraged and quit, oil was discovered which made the new owner a very wealthy man.

There are times when just a bit more effort would make the difference between succeeding and failing. In the 1991 Middle East conflict, known as Desert Storm, General Norman Schwarzkopf wanted 24 more hours to bottle up Iraq's elite Republican Guard, but the war ended, and the elite force of Saddam Hussein survived to fight again.

Schwarzkopf wasn't the first to stop fighting too soon. Take your Bible and read the first chapter of the Old Testament book of Judges, and you will read of a sad litany of failures. The army of ancient Israel stopped fighting too soon or gave up too quickly, and for that failure they paid dearly.

Yes, I realize there is a limit to what any human being can do. But I often wonder how much might be accomplished, how many kids of ours might be saved, what things which fail might have succeeded. If we put just a bit more effort, a bit more push into it.

Friend, when you're tempted to give up, to quit, to turn back, to throw something away as worthless, ponder the outstretched hand of a lad only inches away from help. Think of the farmer who gave up only months before oil was discovered and ask yourself, am I quitting too soon? With a little more effort, can I make it work?

Making this personal, ask yourself, could I have done better today? Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might, says Ecclesiastes 9:10. For in the grave where you are going, there is no working or planning or knowledge or wisdom. Think about it.

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