Inspiration Which Requires Perspiration

Have you ever heard someone remark about another person, saying, “They will never amount to anything?” or “They are not worth a hill of beans?” The people making those types of remarks indicate that the person in question has no future. However, history has proven that those early opinions are often wrong or premature. Overcomers are those people with enormous problems and challenges who overcome their problems. To become an overcomer, one must have something to overcome.

Do you have a problem or something to overcome? Oh, good. You are a candidate for a miracle! Why? It takes a problem to have a miracle. That's good news for the person with forward and persistent views. Perceived victims are often ex-victims who just got focused. Pain in life is inevitable, but misery is optional.

Let’s nourish our souls today with an example of an overcomer who overcame a huge issue and, in overcoming it, changed history. Years ago, in Investor's Business Daily, Nancy Gondo wrote the true-life story of Louis Braille. His life illustrates that disability simply requires the overcomer to do things differently. Here's Louis Braille's story, written by Nancy Gondo. I gleaned this story from Life Lifters, by Zig Ziglar.

“As a three-year-old, Louis Braille, forbidden to touch his father’s tools, climbed up on a workbench and picked up a sharp metal awl to poke holes in leather. Tragically, the awl slipped and plunged into his left eye. As a result, Louis developed an eye infection that spread to his other eye. This caused total blindness by the time he was four years old.

"In the early nineteenth century, to be blind was to be helpless and forever dependent on others. Fortunately, his parents did not buy that idea and decided not to treat Louis differently from his siblings. Louis was a persistent youngster. He used the cane his father made to memorize how many taps it took to get from one point to another. He developed a keen sense of smell and identified with the sounds he heard. At the age of six, a local priest tutored him three times a week. He had a marvelous memory and could memorize the names of writers and artists, and recite long verses of poetry.

"Because of Braille’s keen mind, the priest encouraged the schoolmaster to take him as a student, and Louis soaked up everything. With his mental alertness, he could solve complex math problems in his head. But he could not read or write. He could only sit and listen to turning pages.

"When Louis was about ten, Charles Barbier, a retired ship’s captain, had developed a code system of raised dots and dashes in heavy paper so French soldiers could send messages in the dark. In 1821, he offered his “sonography” method to blind students. Louis was ecstatic. He found it easy to read dots and dashes with his fingers and write messages using a stylus on paper. The problem was that the system was based on sounds, so there were no numbers or punctuation marks. As a result, Louis spent all of his free time working to simplify the groups of dots and dashes.

"Barbier’s system used as many as twenty dots per syllable and up to one hundred per word. It took him many months, but Louis Braille dramatically simplified the system. His school arranged for him to meet Barbier, who left insulted that a thirteen-year-old youth was suggesting changes to his method. Braille persisted; by age fifteen, his system was completed and is still in use today.” 

Humm, so much for a hill of beans, at least in Louis Braille’s case. I believe there are many more potential Louis Braille’s out there, given some encouragement and help from their parents, others, churches, and schools, who won’t settle for a lifestyle of being overcome by life’s challenges. Of course, Louis was a significant factor in what he overcame. He never gave up. He kept on going where many people would not have. He did his part, so his life didn’t come apart. 

Like I said a few weeks ago, life has three choices: Give up, give in, or give it your all. David Jordan Starr says, “Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.”  Francois Maintenon once said, “We do not meet with success except by reiterated efforts.” Frank Tyger said, “The greatest obstacle to your success (and happiness…my addition) is probably you.”

As a pastor since 1980, I’ve seen many people over the years who, with God’s help and others' encouragement, moved on from being victims to victorious. Many were not as intelligent or even as determined as Louis Braille, but they saw what could be rather than what they would be or should be given their circumstances. Like Peter getting out of the boat, they got tired of boat life and stepped into an ocean of possibility where Jesus met them, rescued and restored them, and then transported them to unexpected beginnings with better endings. 

Do you have a problem? That's good. Your problem makes you a candidate for a miracle. I didn’t say it is a guarantee, but it takes a problem to have a miracle. And, while your situation may not change, your outlook can. You are the determining factor in that. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t pre-judge your or any individual’s ability. 

There you go, there’s some inspiration requiring perspiration for someone in a challenging situation.