I recently read about a man named Maxcy Filer who wanted to be an attorney so badly that he took the bar exam forty-eight times.
Forty-Eight Times!!!
Unbelievable.
He spent $50,000 in testing fees and 144 days in testing rooms.
Guess what.
He persevered and he passed.
He proved that hard is not hopeless.
Gen. David Petraeus used this quote in 2010 before Congress when describing the conditions he found in Iraq. He said:
Wilma Rudolph was nothing but a wanna-be small black girl in the late forties. She saw other girls running and jumping and she longed to join them, but she wore heavy braces on her legs.
Against her Mother’s orders, she began taking her braces off around the house and learned to walk without them. It hurt … a lot. She suffered some of the worst pain of her life, but she persisted.
And her leg muscles gained strength.
Soon she was able to walk, and leap, and run.
In time she tried out for sports and was noticed for her quick speed. She was invited to train for the Tennessee Tiger Bells track team, and in 1956 she won a spot on the US Summer Olympics track team. She won a bronze medal that year, however, that was not good enough for Wilma. She vowed that she would do better next time.
When the 1960 Olympics came along, Wilma found herself standing on the winner’s podium in Rome receiving three gold medals.
Here was a young lady who came from a small town, wearing braces, with crooked legs, and facing a life of despair and limitations.
But she overcame.
Was it difficult?
Was it painful?
Was she looked down upon?
Did she want to give up?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
-But she didn’t give up.
-She endured the pain.
-She fought every inch of the way.
Life was hard for Wilma. But it wasn’t hopeless.
She faced the obstacles and WON!
What do you face?
I have a new friend named Chad Hymas. Eleven years ago a one-ton bale of hay fell on him, paralyzing him from the chest down and leaving him with very limited use of his arms and hands. The days and months after Chad’s accident left him wondering and questioning. He was in a hard spot in life. But he soon learned, as many of us do, that hard is not hopeless.
I’m reading his book “Doing What Must Be Done” and I’ll be blogging about it soon. Buy it at Lifelines Book Stop. Click here to order your copy of "Doing What Must Be Done" Now!
Chad has since become one of the top motivational and inspirational speakers in America. He is a much-sought-after speaker inspiring thousands of people every year.
What are you finding that is hard in your life at the moment?
Children?
A job that is less than wonderful?
A boss that is the ogre of the year?
A spouse who is the poster child for “Loser’s Anonymous”?
Life can sometimes be hard.
But hard is not hopeless.
The question is always this: “What else am I willing to do to conquer this opportunity that I’ve been handed?
Are we willing to hold onto hope regardless … ?
<>Sometimes we stop three feet from the finish line.
<>Three feet from finding gold.
There is an abundance of information available to us today through libraries, colleges and universities and the internet. Work your network. Do your part as only you can do, and then talk to people with more experience and more expertise than you, and ask for help.
ASK FOR HELP!
From God
From friends.
Take heart, my friend.
