Welcome back to the world poker tour. Today you are at the table hoping for a good hand. It’s five card stud so you need to play every card in your hand. It’s a brutal game and the stakes are high. What are you going to do? What cards are you going to play? Are you willing to go all in even when you only have one card left? How much is it going to cost you if you lose? Are you willing to take the risk? Are your best cards already on the table? Is there any hope that you will finish a winner?
When Dave Anderson graduated from his Chicago high school in 1971 he was just like any other 18 year old kid. He held a full deck in his hand but didn’t know how to play the game. He wasn’t very good with people so he wanted to find something to do that complimented his love of the outdoors and his Native American Indian heritage.
He enrolled at Michigan tech and tried as hard as he could but just couldn’t fit in. Dave just wasn’t cut out for school. His first semester he brought home all F’s and incompletes. Instead of returning to school after the first semester Dave decided to try something different. A friend had asked him if he wanted to come to a meeting with him where they were recruiting people to sell and automotive oil conditioner. Dave decided to give it a shot.
He went to the meeting and listened to listened to a motivational speaker named Zig Zigler who talked about following your passion. At that moment Dave saw an opportunity and took it. He became an oil conditioner salesman. He borrowed $2,500 of his fathers’ hard earned money and went into the oil conditioner sales business. After weeks of unsuccessfully pushing the product he called it quits. He just couldn’t sell the stuff to anyone. His fathers $2,500 bucks turned into an expensive lesson. He had $2,500 dollars worth of oil that he couldn’t sell to anyone. So he quit selling the oil conditioner and began looking for another opportunity.
At the age of 19 Dave took a job selling sporting goods for Eddie Bauer. He worked hard over the summer and then attempted going back to school at Roosevelt University in the fall. His weak appetite for school showed up once again. Dave came home with a bunch more F’s and incompletes on his report card.
But his time at school wasn’t all bad. While daydreaming in class one day Dave came up with an idea. He wanted to make and sell miniature dish gardens. He scraped together the few hundred bucks he had, spent it on materials, then went out in hopeful that someone would buy his new product. At first he tried to sell his dish gardens to retailers but didn’t have much success. Then he tried to sell them to florists and bingo, it worked.
When Dave approached James Ashner at the Richard Lange Florist shop he ordered a dozen of every dish garden Dave had for a grand total of $736.35. He wrote the check and Dave went home with the largest check he had ever held in his hand. That night Dave decided to go into the wholesale florist business.
For the next seven years Dave worked out of his basement as a wholesale florist. He worked long hours seven days a week. Then one of his florist friends came to him with an idea. In 1970’s Chicago college students liked to decorate their rooms with plants. Dave and his friend decided to take all the money they had, drive to Florida and buy as many plants as they could fit in a semi truck and bring them back to sell on campus.
Their gamble paid off because they sold over $20,000 worth of plants in two days. Their taste of success lured them into taking another gamble. This time they would rent space in a K-mart parking lot and sell plants and flowers to the public over Mothers Day. They invested their entire $20,000 plus more of their own money to rent space, tents, trucks, and but the product. It was a huge gamble.
The Mothers Day of 1979 was horrible. A heavy fog rolled in, then it began to drizzle, and eventually it all turned to snow, lots and lots of snow. The tender plants couldn’t take the cold and died on the frozen shelves. Not only did Dave not sell any floral goods that Mothers Day, many of the customers who had ordered flowers from his wholesale business canceled their orders and didn’t pay him for the ones they did receive. This huge loss forced Dave to file for bankruptcy. A promising career was left in ruins and a once enthusiastic entrepreneur was left in shambles. Dave was down but not out. He still had one card left.
What do you do when it appears that all hope is gone? When you gave it your best and your best just wasn’t enough. Did you quit? Did you give up or give in? Did you make the right decision? What did you do or what will you do with the last card in your hand?
I have yet to meet a human being who has never faced any turmoil. I have never met a person who was born and raised on easy street. At some point everyone gets hit by the big one, damaged by a rouge wave, or dehydrated by the fires of life. It’s inevitable. People of faith get hit, people without faith get hit; everyone will have to deal with failure at some point in their life. But just because you fail once or twice it doesn’t mean that the game is over.
For whatever reasons some Christians mess this up. They irroniously believe that Christians are immune to the pitfalls of life. They think that if you pray enough or study God’s word enough or walk close enough to God that you won’t ever have any problems. One week after Josh was diagnosed with Leukemia a man who used to attend our church sat across the table from me and told me that the reason my son was sick was because I didn’t pray enough. In his mind Christian’s shouldn’t get sick or suffer loss. He honestly believed what he said. I was in such a state of shock at the time that his comments made me question my own beliefs. I ended up meeting with a counselor to help me regain my confidence in my own theology.
I think the Apostle Peter may have been a little off in his beliefs at one point. He had seen God’s hand on Jesus. He had personally witnessed Jesus heal people and had seen God at work. Life was good for Peter. Then one day Jesus had something to say that concerned Peter.
“From then on, Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, "I must go to Jerusalem. There the nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make me suffer terribly. I will be killed, but three days later I will rise to life."
Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. He said, "God would never let this happen to you, Lord!" Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Satan, get away from me! You’re in my way because you think like everyone else and not like God.” Matthew 16:21-23 CEV
Peter thought Jesus was going to be the next king. When Jesus said he had to die Peter equated that with failing and in his mind God would never let Jesus fail. But Jesus confronted him by saying “Satan get away from me.” That’s a very stern rebuke. Jesus knew what he came to do and he knew that God would let him go through dark days for a greater purpose. Peter thought Jesus was folding his last card but Jesus still had one card left that nobody could see.
If God allowed his own Son Jesus Christ to go through dark days he will allow you to go through a few as well. You may feel like you are failing and you may even fail a few times but God is still working and he wants to help you make your next move. So what’s it gonna be? What are you going to do if the odds are not in your favor?
What do I do if the odds are not in my favor?
1. Fold em.
You can quit. You can give up. You can surrender. You can fold your hand and end the game. After all, a person can only get kicked so many times before they are forced to throw in the towel. I was talking to a guy the other day whose wife told him she didn’t love him any more. He was ready to fold his hand in defeat. I was talking to another friend who told me that he would never find someone who would love him. He was ready to fold his hand and stop trying to find someone who he could love and who would love him back. Folding your hand is an option.
2. Hold em
Do you know anyone who has gotten burned and has never recovered? Instead of getting involved in any new relationships they sit in their chair and watch other people have relationships on T.V.
I think some people like to watch reality T.V. because they still like adventure as long as it doesn’t involve them. It’s much less painful to watch others fail than to go out and fail yourself. They are so focused on holding on to what they have that they refuse to move at all. But the game of life keeps going on and on doesn’t it? Can a person really sit still and not move at all? If we try aren’t we in a sense moving backwards?
3. Walk away or run.
Sometimes it’s not wise to stick around and fight it out. You count the cost, calculate the risk, and decide that God wants you to move on. Sometimes walking away is the best thing you can do. Are you really a failure if you decide to run? Second Corinthians 11 details an account where the Apostle Paul decided to run.
“In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.” 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 NIV
Paul decided it was time to run. God gave him an out and he took it. He didn’t surrender or give up, he ran to relocate and get going again.
If your husband beats you, you need to run. You need to get out now for yourself and for your kids. If he is abusive, run to safety. If your relationship revolves around drugs, get out. Walk away, get help. Sometimes the right time to run is now. Let your faith take you to a place of safety.
4. Play the hand you have.
Life deals only one hand. You cannot get another one no matter how much you want it. God has made you unique and special and that’s just how he wanted it. You will probably never win a race at the Olympics and you will probably never play baseball for the Yankees. You will probably never have more money than Donald Trump or better looks than Jennifer Anniston. And that’s OK. You need to play the hand you are dealt to the best of your abilities.
After Jesus rebukes Peter he had this to say:
“Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 CEV
Jesus wants us to play the hand we are dealt. Go all in and have faith that God will do a miracle. For example: When Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo were thrown into the fire by King Nebuchadnezzar God turned their three hearts into three kings. Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to die but God wanted them to live. When Jonah tried to fold his cards God sent a whale to take him where he needed to be. God turned his two of clubs into an ace and an entire city was saved because of it. When Jesus gave his life it looked like the enemy won, but God changed everything and Jesus is victorious.
After Dave Anderson’s dismal failure with his Mothers Day Flower fiasco he was down but not out. He still had one card left and it was a burning desire to stay in the game. He was hopeful that tomorrow would be a better day. He landed a job working for the American Can Company selling Dixie cups, Marathon paper towels, and tissue to restaurants. To get his foot in the door he took the worst territory and worked as hard as he could. He spend hours practicing his salesmanship in front of the mirror and it paid off. In six months he took his route from worst to first in sales.
In 1982 Dave’s tribe, the Lac Courte Orielles Lake Superior Ojibwa in northwest Wisconsin, came looking for him. They were losing money and it was affecting people lives. They asked Dave to be their new CEO and he accepted their offer. Over the next three years Dave led the tribes’ business interests including a cranberry marsh, a print shop, and a construction company, from a gross income of 3.9 million to more than 8 million.
His success with the tribe prompted then President Reagan to recognize Dave in the Commission on Indian Reservation Economies. He was also asked to sit on numerous state and local advisory boards. Then Dave worked with the Mille Lacs Tribe for several years and created thousands of new jobs.
In 1994 Dave began to pursue his real passion; food. He co-founded the Rain Forest Café and it made him wealthy. He used some of his wealth to purchase a small resort in Hayward Wisconsin. There he planned on opening a restaurant that had made great BBQ. He intended on calling it Dave’s Famous BBQ but the printer made a mistake and wrote down Famous Dave’s and the name stuck.
When Dave failed to sell his first case of oil conditioner he could have folded his hand. When he made money selling dish gardens to florists he could have just held on and made a deiocre living for the rest of his life. After losing everything he had over Mother’s Day weekend in 1979 Dave could have walked away or ran from his failures. But he didn’t. He stayed in the game and his perseverance paid off.
This morning you may be here with only one card left. Maybe you feel hopeless. Whatever is on your mind whether it’s your kids, your parents, your friends, your job, your marriage, your future, God wants you to take the one card you have left in your hand and give it to him. Let God turn that deuce into an ace. Let him change the odds. Never give up. Never throw down your cards believing that all hope is lost. Life is packed with ups and downs. And sometimes when it looks like you lost you may have won. That’s just how it is. What you do with the cards you are given determines whether or not you will come out a winner or loser. AMEN
