The Man with Guts Enough Not to Fight Back

In August 1945, Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson in the Brooklyn Dodgers front office and spent three hours hurling insults at him. He called him names, simulated every ugly scenario Robinson would face as the first Black player in Major League Baseball. Robinson finally asked, "Mr. Rickey, are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" Rickey leaned forward and said, "I'm looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back."

For two full seasons, Robinson kept that promise. Pitchers threw at his head. Opposing players spiked him on the basepaths. Fans screamed things no person should ever hear. His own teammates initially refused to take the field with him. And Jackie Robinson — one of the fiercest competitors who ever lived — held his tongue, clenched his jaw, and played baseball.

He didn't stay silent because he was weak. He stayed silent because he understood that patience was doing something far bigger than any punch could accomplish.

James 1:4 tells us, "Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Patience is not passivity. It is not the absence of strength. Biblical patience is strength under control, held in check by a purpose larger than the present pain.

Robinson's patience didn't just open a door for himself. It cracked open an entire nation.

What might the Almighty be doing through the season you are enduring right now — the one that demands everything in you not to fight back?