Sometimes when I have sought to succeed where I was not sure I was right in the
pursuit of a particular success I have prayed,“Lord, if I have made a bad choice…please
let me fail.” And thank God, and that is a prayer, He has answered what I
call “another one of my failure prayers.” And saved me from myself.
And then there are times when failure has come looking
for me…the same that has happened to others…and a stumble became a fall
that became a disaster that becamea roaring success
story.
Tragedy and triumph walked hand in hand to meet and
greet Ludwig Van Beethoven.
As he conducted his famous
Ninth Symphony, the audience stood and rocked the theater with their applause.
This great musician, however, heard neither the music nor the applause, because
by this time in his life…he was completely stone deaf.
His deafness first made him bitter but then heroic and
it came through in his music. Many of his musician friends found a new depth and
intensity “there is
triumph in his music that never was there before” said one musical
critic.
When three year old Louie Braille blinded
himself while boring holes with an awl in his father’s harness shop, it seemed a
senseless tragedy.
However, because Braille was blind; for over one hundred
years the blind have been able to read.
Helen
Keller was born deaf, dumb and blind and yet was able to say when finally she
overcame the impossible “I thank God for my
handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God.”
I am sure Beethoven, Braille and Helen Keller
did not adapt to their pain and problems overnight. Nor did I when my arm
remained paralyzed for far too long after a hang gliding accident in
1982.
It took time; sleepless nights and agonizing days.
But new insights finally did come to call, and new
understanding.
Spiritual
victories come out of the cauldron of eternity, and into it are fed the
will of our God and the desires of our days. And when they are in conflict; that
is when we have to take a deep breath and pray a deeper prayer that sums it all
up, “Thy will be done.”
We
certainly don’t want to pray, “My way, God, or the highway.”
To
view an abundance of unusual, motivating stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other
blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
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