Gò0dNews for Everyone
Setbacks And Comebacks
A
by Tina Rhodes
setback is defined as a slowing of progress,
take the risk to save her people. We may not be asked to
a temporary defeat, or a reversal. Everyone
save our people, but there will be times we are asked if we’re
experiences them in many different arenas in life. A
willing to step out in faith.
comeback is defined as a return to life or vitality, to recover
Life is full of risks; personally, my family took a big one
from a deficit, or to regain a former favorable position.
last spring. We uprooted our lives and took a step that could
Everyone loves the comeback kid, but no one wants the
have gone a myriad of ways. It was one of those times we
setback that precedes it. You can’t have the comeback
had to choose to go “all in” as a family. We left a comfortable,
without the setback first.
predictable way of life and chose to step out into a truly
Everyone has setbacks, but does everyone experience comebacks? Unfortunately, the answer is no, no they don’t. I know from my own personal life that not every setback has produced a comeback. The truth is some setbacks can’t be reversed; the good news is they can still be beneficial. What is it about a person or situation that inspires a comeback? One of my favorite examples of this in the Bible is Queen Esther. In a nutshell, we know that she was raised by her cousin, Mordecai, because her father and mother had died. In an amazing turn of events, she later becomes queen. After becoming queen, an evil man, Haman, plots to have the Jews killed (she has hidden her identity as a Jew up until this point). Esther literally risks her life to save her people. In Esther 4:16, she says in response to Mordecai, “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast
unknown for all of us. Was it scary? Yes! Was it painful? Yes!
for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I
Was it worth it? YES! Helen Keller once said, “Character
and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I
cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through
will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I
experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened,
perish, I perish.”
vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
We know Esther went before the king and he granted
When we choose to look at setbacks differently and
her petition and spared the life of her and her people. We
view them as opportunities instead of threats or losses, then
know that not every situation has a pleasant ending; we
we are set to experience the satisfaction of a comeback, and
have to remember that her parents had apparently died
we will be better people for it.
that because of what she had endured in her life, she was willing to say, “…if I perish, I perish.” She was willing to
34 // May 2020
About The Author
when she was young. She was familiar with pain. I believe
Tina Rhodes lives in Cedartown, Georgia, with her husband and three of their four children. Her oldest son and daughter-in-law reside in South Bend, Indiana. She is the pastor’s wife at Restoration Church Cedartown.
