Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25:21

Testing allows you to discover how well you can perform under pressure. Increasing the pulling pressure in a chain link reveals the amount of tension that can be withstood. Eventually, the “choking” point occurs. In sports, we reach the “choking” point when we are up against a powerful opponent. At what point will the athlete, lose concentration and collapse under the pressure? It is when athletes are under pressure that they discover how well we have been trained; and how much physical exertion they can endure.

As a youth, I played sports. I came to observe that I failed when I didn’t train well enough, and when I reached the point where my ability to focus on the game yielded to fear about the outcome. This fear about outcome forces us to lose our concentration. The fear of failure begins to rule our emotions and actions, which ultimately results in our failure. What we fear has come to pass. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, said Franklin D. Roosevelt when he declared was on Japan in 1941 allowing the sneak attach on Pearl Harbor.

In life, giving in to pressure shows itself in forms, of compulsive behavior; withdrawal; anger; abuse; moral failure; and dishonesty; to name just a few manifestations.

Jesus never yielded to pressure. He never made decisions based on fear. He always made the right decision. He always performed with integrity of spirit, no matter what the circumstance. He lived a life based on truth, not circumstances. He never gave in to “situational ethics;” self interest; or what other people thought of Him.

As God entrusts us with more and more responsibility, He allows more and more pressures into our lives to test us, to make sure that He can give us even more responsibility. This process helps us to become mature and it determines our level of future responsibility.

Are you a person that can withstand the test? Will you perform as your Maker designed you to be, no matter what outside pressures test you? Know that you cannot perform well unless you are continually growing and learning from the One who created you. As an athlete needs to grow and learn from the coach.

Trust the Lord when under pressure. He will be at your side to help you whenever you are tested. And, when the day is done, you will hear these beautiful words from your Master: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Fr. Hugh Duffy