Pep Talk: "A Productive Learning Position"

Toiling around Target recently your knucklehead scribe asked a simple question of my shopping partner, “What did you think about today?” The question was posed to nephew Nolan Schmitt. Preparing for his first year of middle school the Glenview, Illinois native was visiting with sister and parents. The athletic boy, along with his father and many others, was part of A Stronger Cord’s “Help Out” contingent serving others in northwest Denver on a Saturday morning. 

“I thought it was cool” was the response as the baseball and hockey fanatic pushed a noisy cart around the store. The blue-eyed dude plays well with others. He dove right in the fun of the Denver Dream Center’s “Adopt A Block” program designed to build relationships to our community’s most isolated and vulnerable populations. We have too many.

I love watching this wiry kid play sports. His older sister too. They are athletes, competitors and team players. I watch them display gifts and talents on the fields of athletic competition and see the value it brings to their lives. Youth sports teaches kids about life and the importance of setting goals, working hard and dealing with adversity. This much I know, youth sports taught me a ton, long ago.

A few hours after our shopping spree had ended and the party of family and friends was in full swing, Nolan lost a tough match on the ping pong table. Disappointment reigned within and an 11-year-old sulked for a spell on the stairs.

His plan had hit a snag and it sucked. We can all relate, right? Life rarely goes the way WE plan. The question is, and always will be, how do we handle life’s roller coaster? Going back and forth from the basement ping pong action to other party activities on the main floor, more than once this ol’ jock passed a disappointed young man mourning the dashing of dreams to win the friendly, but darn competitive, table tennis test.

For whatever reason my mind wandered to the men ASC encourages to become more fitness-minded, dependable and productive dudes seeking a stronger cord to families, purpose and community. Guess what? They’ve had plenty of disappointment too. A lot of them self inflicted. Now, they’re trying to come back from poor decisions, lousy childhoods and tough luck.

We all have our tale of woe. How to press on, learn from the setbacks and become superior to our former selves? Whether losing in sports, fighting addiction, bouncing back from divorce, illness, incarceration or whatever challenge, it really boils down to this: Student or victim? Our choice, choose wisely.

The other day I heard a Denver Rescue Mission chaplain mutter this gem: “God is not interested in our condition, he’s interested in our position!” Amen. We all have our conditions, this week, let’s make sure we take a productive learning position toward them!

At the very least, just like Nolan, we’ll be winners for the effort.