Reflections (deal with it)

This weekend Andy Stanley reference Admiral Jim Stockdale in his sermon.  I heard him mention the name and recognized Stockdale.  I had read about the "Stockdale Paradox" in Jim Collin's book, "Good to Great."  
Stockdale was the highest ranking United States military officer to be a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.  He was tortured and held for eight years.
His story has been recounted many times.  Collins interviewed him.  When asked what sustained him, Stockdale said, "I never lost faith in the end of the  story." 
He said he "never doubted that he would get out, but also that he would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of his life, which in retrospect, he would not trade". (Good to Great, Jim Collins, page 45)
That puts our present challenge in context.  It helps me to refuse to live in denial.  I am not going to try to convince myself, or anyone else, that this is not as bad as it seems.  Coronvirus is bad.  Lousy.  I face that.  By the Holy Spirit, I'll deal with it today.
At the same time I will not be defined by the cornovirus.  I will deal with it.  I will not yield to it.
Stockdale never lost faith in the end of the story.  Good advice.
He was also asked about those who did not make it out of captivity.  Who were they?  Stockdale immediately would respond, "the optimists".  They were the people who kept going on saying we will be home by Christmas, or Easter, or some other arbitrary date.  The time would come and go.  Eventually they gave in to the hard fact of their current reality.
Even as I write this I feel it is not very encouraging.  I really want to say come summer we will be done with this mess.  Could be.  Probably not.
So, today I will deal with it.  After all God promises our "daily bread".  I'll trust God today.  And as I trust God today, faith will increase and I will trust God tomorrow.  And so on and so on.
But I won't give up - by God's grace - I won't give up.
By God's grace, I will grow in faith.  Because I know the end of the story.  And so do you.
This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
steve