Setback Love

From Boston to Calcutta with a detour through debtor's prison.  How do you keep your dreams from melting away?

This year, we are learning to love better by exploring the greatest commandment – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We’ve looked at the parts of our lives that are typically associated with love – our heart, soul, and mind, but now we need to finish the journey by investigating how to love with all our strength.  Weak love isn’t much love at all.  Real love is made of sterner stuff, and if we are going to love better, we need to learn how to love with ALL our strength.  Today, is the third in a ten-part series on how to have strong love, and today, we are going to talk about the strength to work through setbacks.

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

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Transcript

What would it take for you to give up a free education from Harvard?  Frederic Tudor passed up Harvard for a business that didn’t exist, yet. Born and raised just ten miles north of Boston, Frederic was born into exceptional wealth.  His father, William Tudor, was a wealthy lawyer and a state senator in Massachusetts… and in the 1801, Massachusetts was one of only sixteen states.  The original 13 colonies had declared independence in 1776, and by 1800, three additional states had joined the Union: Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), and Tennessee (1796).  So, William Tudor was a big deal and as the country was at the cusp of exciting new frontiers, it would have been easy for Frederic to follow in his father’s footsteps of law, politics, or both.

But Frederic had no interest in the legal world or governance… or Harvard for that matter.  All Frederic Tudor could think about was being an entrepreneur.  Frederic wanted to wheel and deal and build an empire of his own… and growing up in frigid Boston, he knew exactly what he wanted to sell… Frederic wanted to sell ice.

I’d like to interest you to Frederic Tudor, the inventor of the ice trade, also known as the Ice King.

I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way. 

This year, we are learning to love better by exploring the greatest commandment – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We’ve looked at the parts of our lives that are typically associated with love – our heart, soul, and mind, but now we need to finish the journey by investigating how to love with all our strength.  Weak love isn’t much love at all.  Real love is made of sterner stuff, and if we are going to love better, we need to learn how to love with ALL our strength.  Today, is the third in a ten-part series on how to have strong love, and today, we are going to talk about the strength to work through setbacks.

When Frederic Tudor decided to sell ice… nobody else was selling ice.  If you’ve watched the Disney movie, ‘Frozen’, you might recall the seen with men cutting through the ice of a frozen lake with large coarse-toothed saws all while singing a catchy Nordic tune.  Yeah… Kristoff didn’t invent the ice trade – that was Frederic Tudor.

You see, ice doesn’t sell to people who live in cold places – they can just collect and store the stuff themselves.  Even before the days of modern refrigeration there wasn’t much money in selling frozen water to the people of Boston… and least not initially.  Frederic had his eyes on selling ice to the people of the Caribbean, India, and Cuba.  His clientele were thousands of miles away in places like Martinique, Havana, and Calcutta.  He was convinced that if he could get ice to the sweltering tropics, people would buy it at a premium.

Ultimately, Frederic Tudor was right and he became one of the richest men in the world gaining the nickname “The Ice King”… but that’s the end of the story, it leaves out all the difficult parts in the middle.

For example, the current methods for ice storage consisted mostly of sawdust… that wasn’t going to cut it for intercontinental shipping.  Tudor pioneered double-walled insulation to store ice more effectively.  That fancy Yeti mug you use to keep your coffee hot?  Double-walled insulation – thanks Mr. Tudor!

He also had to retrofit cargo ships, design efficient methods for large scale ice harvesting, and build an entire distribution network of icehouse to ensure a steady supply of ice for his customers.  On top of that, the first shipment to the Caribbean failed.  He sold the ice at a loss and the second trip was even more of a financial disaster.  Frederic ended up in debtor’s prison because of all the costs.  Imagine the impact that had on his reputation amongst the wealthy elite of Boston!  Frederic had to do more than sell ice, he had to educate his customer base on the benefits of ice in a tropical environment.  Food preservation, medical applications, and an enhanced dining experience for the aristocracy of India.

Eventually, Frederic Tudor transformed ice from a regional, seasonal commodity into a global luxury and in the process pioneered a model for cold chain logistics that modern shipping systems are built upon.  And here is why he did it – Frederic Tudor loved ice and was determined to bring it to the masses.

When I was originally writing this podcast, it was going to be about salt the “white gold” of history, yet along the way I ran into Frederic and became fascinated with him.  I think it was because Frederic Tudor could have been just another wealthy rich kid living off of the privilege of his parents – but instead he literally carved his own frozen path to success.  The most famous quote from the Ice King is from the cover of his dairy of all places.  When considering his ice escapades in the middle of bankruptcy and being given time to reflect on his failures as he languished in debtor’s prison he said, “"He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow, despairs of success has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, love, or business”

Frederic is right – heroes of all shapes and sizes show strength when they don’t quit.

 Strength isn’t found in the victory.  It’s found in the defeats.  When someone perseveres despite setbacks and shows resiliency in the face of adversity we consider them strong.  It is the defeated that refuses to stay defeated that eventually attains victory.

If we are going to learn to love better, we need to love with all our strength and that means the strength to continue after failures.  Let’s talk about four ways that the Bible highlights the kind of love that is strong through failure.

#1 Strong love perseveres in the face of challenges.

In Galatians 6:9, the apostle Paul writes, “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Galatians is the same letter that details Paul’s health challenges, and it is also a letter that Paul reprimanded Christians for quickly turning aside when something new or difficult came along.  Paul, like many early Christians, faced tremendous hardships and challenges.  Beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, oppositions outside of the church, criticism within the church.  Today, in 2024, Christianity flourishes and exists all over the globe, and in most places, God’s people are allowed to live and share the good news of Jesus freely.  That wasn’t the case with Paul.  Challenges were constant.  Today, as we seek to love Jesus and our neighbor, we don’t always have the stamina that those early believers did because we haven’t been through what they went through.  The important message of Galatians 6 is that if we keep going, we will reap a harvest.  Farmers put up with a lot of miserable weather before harvest day comes.  Loving through adversity means expecting challenges, anticipating them, and not letting them stop you.  A fight with your spouse isn’t a reason to give up on your marriage and a tough day with your kids isn’t a reason to quit on them.  Challenges are challenging, but strong love rises to meet those challenges.

#2 Strong love doesn’t let the unknown decide their future

In Joshua 1:9, God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, he faced daunting and unknown enemies.  He had never led a nation before, never laid siege to a city, or planned for a territorial invasion.  The list of things that were unknown were endless, and the list of things that were known didn’t look too good either.  But God told Joshua to be strong and show courage as he stepped into the unknown because God would be with him.

Knowing the right thing to do and having all the answers aren’t the same thing.  Lots of people rationalize their way out of doing what they should because they give a list of what *might* go wrong.  Joshua didn’t do that, he grabbed his sword and headed for the battle.

How about you?  Do you love others enough to have the crucial, but uncomfortable conversations? Or are there things you’ve been putting off and sweeping under the rug because you don’t know how the talk would go?  Are there things you are leaving unsaid, deeds you are leaving undone, or walks of faith you are leaving untrodden because you don’t know the end of the story at the beginning.  Strong love combined with strong faith takes the first step into the unknown.  If it is the right thing to do, don’t worry about whether it is the convenient thing.

#3 Strong love learns from failure and tries again.

One of the most well known apostles in the Bible is Peter.  He is known for many things, but mostly he is known for his failures.  Peter was rebuked by Jesus on multiple occasions, denied Jesus three times, and was pretty regularly haven’t to be corrected by God.  Peter was a consistent failure… but one thing Peter always did was get back up again.

The same Peter that denied Jesus three times was later asked by Jesus three times if he loved Him.  Peter’s answer was yes every single time.  If we love something enough, we are willing to set our pride aside.  What parent wouldn’t humble themselves and ask for help if it meant saving their child’s life?  Inversely, a husband or wife that is unwilling to seek forgiveness loves themselves more than they love their spouse.  Friendships that can’t set their egos aside don’t last long, and people never improve at things they aren’t willing to look dumb doing poorly at first.

In Paul’s letter the Christians in the city of Ephesus he writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

You notice the language?  You can’t have unity without humility.  If we are going to bear with one another in love, we are going to need to be gentle with people when they fail and be humble enough to admit when we need that gentleness, too.  Strong love fails, but owns the failure, repents, asks for forgiveness, and moves forward with the humility to learn from their mistakes.

#4 Strong love believes in the cause

In 1 Corinthians 13:7 it says, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

The sentence begins with love bearing up under hard things and it ends with love enduring all things… but smack dab in the middle of that difficult task is the reminder of why love bears and endures – because love also believes and hopes.

You cannot be strong without a cause to believe in and a hope to look towards.  Frederic Tudor had a clear vision in his mind of a world with ice shipped to every tropical corner and he believed in it enough to endure and bear up under a lot of setbacks.

How about you?  What do you want the world to look like after you are gone?  How do you hope your life will turn out?  Who do you love and how do you want that love to change the life of those around you?  Only Jesus can change the whole world, but you can touch your little corner of it.

A life without purpose will always be lived weakly.  A strong cause marshals the strength to rise to the moment.  You cannot have strong love without a strong conviction.

Frederic Tudor wanted every humid corner of the world to have just a little taste of the refreshment of the ice that was just right out his backdoor.  He’d found something good and wanted to share it.

Part of learning to love better is finding the good and then gathering your strength to bring that good to those you can.  As a Christian, loving God and loving your neighbor go hand in hand because God is good and your neighbor needs God’s goodness… but oftentimes, trying to show that goodness isn’t as easy as it sounds.  There will be challenges, but it will be worth it.

Learn to love better.  Learn to love through the setbacks.

As always, thank you for listening and hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better.  If you have a chance to rate, review or share the podcast it would be a blessing.  By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you help us reach more people. 

Or maybe you have a fun or obscure history account, a feel-good news story, or a riveting scientific fact you think could help us love better.  If so, I’d love to hear it!  Feel free to email me at scott@biblegrad.com 

And if you are ever in the Louisville, KY area, I’d like to invite you to worship with us at the Eastland congregation.  We meet for worship every Sunday and have Bible classes for all ages Wednesday’s, too.  If you want more information about Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org.  Or if you are looking for more tools to enrich your Bible study, visit my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can read daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.

And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”