Around the turn of the 20th century, psychologist Alfred Adler proposed the counterintuitive theory of compensation. Adler believed that what we think of as disadvantages often prove to be advantages because they force us to cultivate compensatory attitudes and abilities that probably would have lain dormant or gone undiscovered without them. And it’s often as we compensate for those disadvantages that we discover our greatest giftings. For example, 70 percent of the art students that Adler studied had optical anomalies. And some of history’s greatest composers—Mozart and Beethoven among them—had degenerative conditions in their ears.
A more recent study of small-business owners found that 35 percent of them were self-identified dyslexics. While none of us would wish dyslexia on our children because of the academic challenges that come with it, the disadvantage of dyslexia forced this group of entrepreneurs to cultivate different skill sets that set them up for success.
Long story short, perceived disadvantages such as birth defects, physical ailments, or even the environmental challenge of poverty can be springboards to success. And that success is not achieved in spite of those perceived disadvantages. It’s achieved because of them.
John Irving is a great example.
Irving is considered one of the great storytellers of his generation. His book The World According to Garp won a National Book Award. His screenplay The Cider House Rules won an Academy Award. But here’s the thing: Irving earned a C- in high school English. And it took him five years to graduate. His SAT verbal was 475 out of 800, which means two-thirds of us who took the SAT scored higher. But do you have a National Book Award? An Academy Award?
Irving’s teachers thought he was lazy, thought he was stupid. The reality is, he was dyslexic. But it’s that disadvantage that propelled him. Irving said, “If my classmates could read our history assignment in an hour, I allowed myself two or three.” Irving had to study longer and work harder. And it’s his study habits and work ethic that ultimately propelled him professionally. In Irving’s words, “To do anything well, you have to overextend yourself.”
I like Irving’s story for lots of reasons, but one of them is very personal. I took a career assessment when I was in graduate school that showed a below-average aptitude for writing. Writing is not a natural gifting for me, and I knew it. I also knew that I was called to write. So what did I do? I worked harder—I read 3,000 books before I wrote one.
That lack of natural ability is coupled with one of my other weaknesses. Early on in ministry, I could not speak extemporaneously. I had to script and rescript every single word of every single sermon every single time. I thought my inability to speak extemporaneously was a preaching disadvantage, but it proved to be a writing advantage. Those sermon manuscripts, after some adaptations and alterations, would become book manuscripts. Without that perceived disadvantage, I doubt I would have cultivated my writing gifts. Writing, for me, is a compensatory skill.
You have gifts and abilities that you aren’t even aware of, but they are often buried beneath perceived weaknesses. In those disadvantages, dreams are playing hide-and-seek.
What does that have to do with David and his mighty men?
Destiny Revealed
Saul slept in the palace on silk sheets while David’s band of brothers camped out in cold caves. Saul’s army was well armed and well equipped. David’s mighty men? Not so much, as evidenced by the fact that Benaiah had to steal the Egyptian’s spear to use it against him. And while Saul’s army ate Fogo De Chão served on silver platters, David’s mighty men had to hunt and kill everything they ate. In other words, they had to work harder, grow stronger, get smarter.
I like random facts that you don’t need to know to live a long, happy life. Here’s one of them. The brains of wild animals are 15 to 30 percent larger than those of their domesticated counterparts. Why? Well, I don’t know about other pet owners, but we feed our dog, Mickey, by putting dog food in his bowl. It’s the greatest 60 seconds of his day. A wild animal, on the other hand, has to forage for its food, has to fight for its food. But that foraging and fighting require creativity and effort. It’s survival of the fittest in the wild. Those animals that survive get stronger and smarter simply because it’s harder for them to find food.
David’s mighty men seemed to be at a disadvantage, but that’s how God makes heroes. The perceived disadvantages actually developed skills in David’s mighty men that they didn’t know they had.
For Josheb, the disadvantage was 800-to-1 odds.
For Benaiah, it was a 500-pound lion.
For Eleazar, it was the rest of the army retreating.
Destiny isn’t revealed on sunny days. It’s usually revealed on snowy days.
Destiny isn’t revealed when everything is going your way. Destiny is revealed when everybody else retreats.
Destiny isn’t just revealed in your natural gifts and abilities. It’s also revealed in the compensatory skills you have to work extra hard to cultivate.
With that as a backdrop, let’s look at Eleazar’s story:
Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammin for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. (2 Samuel 23:9-10, NIV)
Now we’re ready to talk about five ways to fight for your dream.
#1: Define Success
If you succeed at the wrong thing, you’ve failed. If you fail at the right thing, you’ve succeeded. I’d rather fail at the right thing than succeed at the wrong thing.
Stephen Covey said that most people are so busy climbing the ladder of success that they fail to realize it’s leaning against the wrong wall. So before you go after your dream, you’d better make sure it’s the right one. You’ve got to define success before you get started.
Here’s my definition: Success is when those who know you best respect you most. At the end of the day, I want to be famous in my home.
There is a line in the lion chaser’s manifesto that says, “Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Run to the roar!” You don’t die when your heart stops beating. You die when your heart stops skipping a beat in pursuit of the dream God has given you.
You need to choose your battles wisely. But I would juxtapose that with this: You need to know what battlefield you’re willing to die on. Every one of David’s mighty men was willing to take a bullet. Why? Because they had a clearly defined goal—to crown David king.
I’ve given a few definitions of faith before:
• Faith is the willingness to look foolish.
• Faith is the process of unlearning our fears.
• Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step.
Let me give you one more. I think it’s the best biblical definition. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Fighting for your dream starts there. You’ve got to know what you’re fighting for. And Jesus is the best example. Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.” How do you endure nine-inch nails through your hands and feet? And not just endure it but scorn it? Jesus did it because He had a clear vision of His end goal—you. Your salvation was the joy that was set before Him, and evidently you are worth the cross to Christ.
Success for Jesus wasn’t overthrowing the Roman Empire. He could have done that, but the goal was conquering an earthly kingdom. The end goal, the end game was eternal salvation for you and me.
#2: Take It One Step at a Time
If life is like a box of chocolates, then dreams are like a box of Legos. The picture on the front of the box is the dream. That’s Hebrews 11:1. That’s “confidence in what we hope for.” But whatever is on the front of the box doesn’t come out fully assembled. You have to put the pieces together. And honestly, the process of pursuing the dream is more important than the final outcome. It’s less about accomplishing the dream and more about who you become in the process.
We want fully assembled success, but we’ve got to go after our dream one step at a time. There are no shortcuts. There are no cheat codes.
In 1889, a hundred artists presented their plans for the centerpiece of the World’s Fair in Paris. The winner was an engineer named Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who proposed a 984-foot tower—the tallest building in the world at the time. It was Eiffel’s dream, but it was really a dream within a dream. Eiffel tipped his hat to 72 scientists, engineers, and mathematicians whose names are engraved on the tower. It was their collective genius that Eiffel leveraged to build his tower. And without a team, his dream would never have become reality. It took 300 carpenters and riveters and hammermen to put together the 18,038-piece puzzle of wrought iron in two years, two months, and five days.
My point? Your dream is a Lego set. You need a clear definition of success, but then you’ve got to put it together brick by brick by brick.
You get into shape one workout at a time.
You get out of debt one payment at a time.
You earn your graduate degree one class at a time.
You produce an album one rehearsal at a time.
You get the job promotion one project at a time.
You get the game ball one practice at a time.
Whatever dream journey you’re on, you have to take it one step at a time. And if you keep doing the right things day in and day out, then one day God is going to show up and show off.
#3: Get Around the Right People
With. It’s a little preposition, but it has huge implications. Second Samuel 23:9 says that Eleazar was “with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammin.” He was in the right place at the right time with the right person.
One of the best ways to discover your dream is to serve someone else’s. And if you don’t have a dream, get around someone who does.
That’s what Eleazar did.
Here’s what I believe. God is in the business of building your résumé. God is in the business of building your network. But you have to get around the right people.
I see that example set throughout Scripture. Joshua climbed Mount Sinai with Moses. Elisha shadowed Elijah. Ruth wouldn’t leave her mother-in-law’s side.
They got around the right people and it paid dividends. Joshua took over for Moses, leading the people into the Promised Land. Elisha got Elijah’s mantle and a double portion of his anointing. Ruth got a second chance at love by marrying Boaz. They had a boy named Obed, who had a boy named Jesse, who had a boy named David. Ruth became King David’s great-grandmother. Why? Because of who she hung out with!
Choose your friends wisely.
Benjamin Franklin’s curriculum vitae might be the most impressive among our Founding Fathers. Franklin not only signed the Declaration of Independence; he also edited it. His inventions include the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and bifocals. And his periodical, Poor Richard’s Almanac, made him the most widely read writer in 18th-century America. Franklin started the American Philosophical Society, served as postmaster of Philadelphia, and was unanimously elected sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.
A résumé like that can seem a little surreal, but I left out a few critical pieces of the puzzle. It’s not insignificant that Benjamin Franklin served as a clerk in the Pennsylvania General Assembly for 15 years before he won a seat. He transcribed thousands of speeches before he delivered one. He listened to thousands of debates before he got into one. Benjamin Franklin also served for nearly a decade as an apprentice printer to his brother. And before he published Poor Richard’s Almanac, he collected the best essays from his favorite magazine, The Spectator. He read and reread them. He took notes. Then he hid the originals in a drawer and tried to rewrite them. Then he compared his version with the original version, discovered his shortcomings, and corrected them. That’s fighting for your dream!
And by the way, it was Franklin who said, “There are no gains without pains.”
#4: Adopt a growth mindset
Let me share a personal conviction.
I believe that just about anybody can do just about anything if they work hard enough, work long enough, and work smart enough. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. If you’re four-foot nothing, you’re probably not going to play in the NBA even if you practice 10,000 hours. Yes, there are genetic limitations. But in the grand scheme of things, just about anybody can do just about anything if they fight until their hand freezes to the sword.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog. And it comes back to our mindset.
In 1939, Finland was a huge underdog in the Winter War. The Soviet army was three times larger, had thirty times as many airplanes, and had a hundred times as many tanks. But the Finnish troops held their ground, much like Eleazar held his.
In 1940, Time magazine ran a feature on the Finns. Here’s an excerpt:
The Finns have something they call sisu. It is a compound of bravado and bravery, of ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep fighting after most people would have quit, and to fight with the will to win. The Finns translate sisu as “the Finnish spirit” but it is a much more gutful word than that.
The New York Times ran a similar feature. It said, “A typical Finn is an obstinate sort of fellow who believes in getting the better of bad fortune by proving that he can stand worse.”
Sisu is the will to fight.
Sisu is unwillingness to give up.
Sisu is fierce resolve.
Sisu is guts, Sisu is grit.
In her brilliant book Mindset, Carol Dweck defines two different mindsets that make all the difference in the world. A fixed mindset believes that our qualities are fixed in stone. A growth mindset believes that our basic qualities can be cultivated through effort.
The fixed mindset tries to validate itself. It’s always on trial.
The growth mindset tries to stretch itself. It’s always learning.
The fixed mindset is focused on outcomes. The growth mindset is focused on inputs.
With the fixed mindset, when you fail, you’re a failure. With the growth mindset, when you fail, it’s a failed attempt.
Gold medalist Rowdy Gaines is a great example of the growth mindset.
In 1984, Gaines won the gold medal, setting an Olympic record in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 49.8 seconds. We boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, so Gaines trained for the Olympics for eight years! Eight years for a race that lasts less than a minute! Over those eight years, he swam an estimated 20,000 miles in 50-meter increments. In Gaines’s words, “I swam around the world for a race that lasted forty-nine seconds.”
How did he do it? You guessed it: a growth mindset.
Rowdy Gaines said, “At every practice I would try to beat myself.” That’s it. He wasn’t trying to beat everyone else. He was trying to beat himself. And because he kept beating himself, he eventually beat everyone else and won a gold medal.
#5: Fight Till Your Hand Freezes to the Sword
I don’t quote Nietzsche in every sermon, but I love what he says about perfection. “With everything perfect,” said Nietzsche, “we do not ask how it came to be.” Instead, “we rejoice in the present fact as though it came out of the ground by magic.”
I think that’s true of success too. We see the finished product, but we fail to recognize the sacrifices that were made to achieve it. We don’t see how hard it was or how long it took.
I recently read a book about Leonard Cohen and his song “Hallelujah.” It’s been performed and recorded by hundreds of artists. The British music magazine Q named it one of the top ten greatest tracks of all time. Bono said, “It might be the most perfect song in the world.” It’s magical, right? No! Cohen called it pure agony.
It took him four years to write that song. And he wrote 80 verses that he eventually edited down to 4.
My point? I don’t believe in magic.
When the London Philharmonic Orchestra selected the 50 greatest pieces of classical music, the list included 6 pieces by Mozart, 5 by Beethoven, and 3 by Bach. To generate those masterpieces, Mozart composed more than 600 pieces, Beethoven produced 650, and Bach wrote more than 1,000 pieces of music.21
If it had been baseball, Bach would have been batting .003. Total failure, right? Wrong! Good music takes time, takes effort.
Success is not sexy. It’s sweaty.
Success is not glamorous. It’s gritty.
But while I don’t believe in magic, I do believe in favor. Favor is what God can do for you that you cannot do for yourself.
And I believe in anointing. Anointing is supernatural gifting beyond human ability, divine revelation beyond human knowledge, and supernatural power beyond human strength.
So I believe in favor. I believe in anointing. But God won’t give you those things if you’re lazy. You can’t just pray like it depends on God; you have to work like it depends on God. You have to fight for your dream until your hand freezes to the sword.
Charge!
When I read the story about Eleazar, I can’t help but think of Joshua Chamberlain.
On July 2, 1863, Joshua Chamberlain and his 300-soldier regiment were all that stood between the Confederates and certain defeat at a battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At 2:30 p.m., the Confederate Army charged, but Chamberlain and his men held their ground. This was followed by a second, third, fourth, and fifth charge.
Only 80 Union blues stood standing at Little Round Top by the last charge. Chamberlain himself was knocked down by a bullet that hit his belt buckle, but the 34-year-old schoolteacher got right back up. One of his sergeants informed him that no reinforcements were coming and his men were down to one round of ammunition per soldier. A 12-year-old lookout in a tree told him that the Confederates were forming ranks for another charge. Chamberlain knew he needed to act decisively. The rational thing to do at that point, with no ammunition and no reinforcements, would have been to surrender. But Chamberlain wasn’t wired that way. He made a defining decision that turned the tide of the war and single-handedly saved the Union.
In full view of the enemy, Chamberlain climbed onto their barricade of stones and gave a command. He pointed his spear at the enemy and yelled, “Charge!”
Chamberlain’s men fixed bayonets and started running at the Confederate army that vastly outnumbered them. They caught them off guard by executing a great right wheel, and in what ranks as one of the most improbable victories in military history, 80 Union soldiers captured 4,000 confederates in five minutes flat.
Historians believe that if Chamberlain had not charged, the rebels would have gained the high ground. If the rebels had gained the high ground, there is a good chance they would have won the Battle of Gettysburg. If the rebels had won that battle, the historical consensus is that the Confederates would have won the war.
After the war, Joshua Chamberlain went on to serve as the 32nd governor of Maine and president of his alma mater, Bowdoin College. In 1893, 30 years after he raised his spear, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Grover Cleveland for carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top.
In his last years, Chamberlain would reflect upon the war with these words: “I knew I may die, but I also knew that I would not die with a bullet in my back. I had deep within me the inability to do nothing.”
I don’t want to die with a bullet in my back.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” In other words, charge! We’re called to play offense with our lives by making the most of the time, talent, and treasure God has given us.
Charge your marriage!
Charge your children!
Charge your dream!
Charge your audition!
Charge God!
Quit running away from what you’re afraid of.
Quit sitting back and waiting for something to happen.
You’ve got to run to the 500-pound roar.
You’ve got to raise your spear against 800-to-1 odds.
You’ve got to fight until your hand freezes to the sword.
