Failures can make a comeback
By R. LANEY KUHN
United Methodist Church
(Reprinted from Oct. 24, 2002)
In 1974, pitcher Tommy John of the Los Angeles Dodgers was sailing along with an outstanding record, his best season ever. Then, in mid-season, something snapped in his pitching arm during a game. A tendon in his left arm gave way. He could no longer even grip a baseball much less throw one with accuracy. Even the team doctors were not encouraging; they urged him to investigate another line of work.
Yet Tommy John was determined. Surgeons transplanted a healthy tendon from his right arm to his left. Even so, they still doubted that he would ever play baseball again. Indeed, the surgery itself was of the pioneering nature. It took agonizing months for John to regain the use of his left hand. He sat out the entire 1975 baseball season, and few people ever expected to see him in uniform again.
But Tommy John is a man of faith in God and in himself. He worked hard, first at home, then in the Arizona Instructional League. He came back to spring training in 1976 and won back his starting pitching job with the Dodgers. He pitched well enough to earn "Comeback Player of the Year" honors in 1976 and then paced the Dodger pitching staff in the pennant winning years of 1977 and 1978.
There is something stirring about a comeback story. Perhaps this is because most of us have experienced or feared the agony of defeat, the frustration of failure.
The Bible is full of comeback stories — stories of men who failed but came back to God. Moses fled Egypt as a murderer, yet he returned to deliver God's people from bondage. Peter denied his Lord three times, yet came back to serve God as prince of the Apostles. John Mark washed out as a young missionary, but came back to become especially useful to both Paul (2 Timothy 4:11) and Peter (I Peter 5:13). And, of course, the story of the prodigal son is really a comeback story, coming out of sin and back to his father.
Even the finest of us may fail God and others. Yet, failures can make a comeback! They can make a new beginning with God.
