No one has given me an exceptionally hard time over the whipping that Tennessee gave to my University of Memphis Tigers on Saturday. Even if they did, though, I have really tough skin when it comes athletic loss. That tough skin was developed on the African continent and involved another event just a week ago: the Ryder Cup. For those of you not in the know, the Ryder Cup is a golf competition between the United States and Europe. For years, the US dominated the poor Europeans. No longer. The Europeans consistently make a laughing stock of our team. In fact, this year would have been the worst whipping in history had not one of the Europeans conceded a putt that was almost unmakeable. My African golf buddies took great delight in pointing out our deficiencies in the Ryder Cup – and that delight went on and on for months. Up to a year later, at the most inappropriate moments possible, one of them would call out, “Don, what happened to your boys in the Ryder Cup?”
Tough skin is a biblical concept. Here are two proverbs that illustrate what I mean:
Fools have short fuses and explode all too quickly; the prudent quietly shrug off insults. (Proverbs 12:16)
A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11)
People talk. People say stupid things. What a wonderful church we would have if we could let stupid comments, offensive words to just pass…if we shrugged off insults and overlooked offenses. My prayer is that we’d develop tougher skin and hearts more tender than ever before.
