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Perseverance
Discouragement
The devil decided to have a
garage sale. Ono the day of sale
his tools were placed for public inspection
each being marked with its sale price. There were a treacherous lot of
implements: hatred
envy
jealousy
deceit
lust
lying
pride
and so on.
Set apart from the rest was
a harmless-looking tool. It was quite worn and yet priced very high.
“What is the name of this
tool?” asked one of the customers
pointing to it.
“That is discouragement
”
Satan replied.
“Why have you priced it so
high?”
“Because it is more useful
to me than the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s heart with that
even when I cannot get near him with the other tools. It is badly worn because
I use it on almost everyone
since so few people know it belongs to me.”
The devil’s price for
discouragement was high because it is still his favorite tool
and he is still
using it on God’s people. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Endurance
Several years ago a man
reported his observations of the effects of a hurricane on a southeastern Gulf
Coast town. As he walked up and down the ravaged streets
he observed that the
palm trees had been uprooted and flung about. Once tall and majestic
their
root systems were too shallow to withstand the hurricane force winds. But as he
proceeded
he came upon a lone oak tree. The leaves had been blown away and
some of the smaller branches ripped off
but the roots had gone deep
and the
tree held its position. And in due season it would again produce leaves.
So it is with us. If we are
to endure in times of great stress and difficulty
we must beforehand have put
down a depth of character that will sustain the blows of the trial. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Endurance
”Our men
were not braver than the enemy. They were brave five minutes longer.”— attributed
to Lord Wellington after the great victory won over Napoleon at Waterloo
Failure
John F. Kennedy said
“Success has many fathers
but failure is an orphan; no one wants to claim it.”
──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Failure
In 1879
a child was born
to a poor Jewish merchant. In early life the lad suffered a haunting sense of
inferiority because of the anti-Semitic feeling he encountered on every hand.
Shy and introspective
the boy was so slow in learning that his parents had him
examined by specialists to see if he was normal. In 1895
he failed his
entrance examinations at the Polytechnicum in
Who was he? The man who
formulated the theory of relativity
Albert Einstein
one of the greatest
geniuses who ever lived. He never let early failures defeat him! ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
Sometime go out and watch a
stonecutter hammering away at a rock. He might hit the rock a hundred times
without so much as a crack showing in it. Then
suddenly
at the hundred and
first blow the rock splits in two. Was it the one blow that split the rock?
Only in an immediate sense
for that one blow would have accomplished nothing
if it were not for all that had gone before. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
In the movie Chariots of
Fire
young Harold Abrahams
a champion sprinter
had just suffered his
first-ever defeat. After the race he sat alone
pouting in the bleachers. When
his girlfriend tried to encourage him
he bellowed
“If I can’t win
I won’t
run!” To which she wisely replied
“If you don’t run
you can’t win.” Abrahams
went on to win the 1924 Olympic Gold Medal in the hundred-meter run.
Perseverance
By perseverance the snail
reached the ark. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Perseverance
William Carey
when asked
about his great accomplishments in his work of translating the Bible into
Indian languages and dialects
said: “I am not a genius
just a plodder.” But
what a plodder! In forty years of labor
he translated all or portions of the
Bible into thirty-four of the languages and dialects of
Perseverance
Many years ago in England
there was a small boy who talked with a lisp. While growing up
he was never a
scholar. When war came along
they rejected him because “we need men.” He once
rose to address the House of Commons
and they all walked out. He often spoke
to empty chairs and echoes.
One day he became prime
minister of Great Britain and led his country to victory in a worldwide
conflict. That man was Sir Winston Churchill
whose iron will to persevere
rallied all of his countrymen to defend their land and eventually win the war. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
The following is attributed
to “Gentleman Jim” Corbett
who held the heavyweight boxing title for five
years at the end of the nineteenth century:
“Fight one more round. When
your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring
fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your
hands to come on guard
fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and
your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would
crack you on the jaw and put you to sleep
fight one more round-remembering
that the man who fights one more round is never whipped. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
Thomas Edison gave us some
wise thoughts regarding failure. It is said that the famous inventor made
thousands of trials before he got his celebrated electric light to operate.
One day
a workman to whom
he had given a task said
“Mr. Edison
it cannot be done.”
This is the same man who
also said
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent
perspiration.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Perseverance
At the close of the first
day of the Battle of Shiloh
with serious Union reverses
General U.S. Grant
was met by his greatly discouraged chief engineer
James McPherson
who said:
“Things look bad
General. We’ve lost half our artillery and a third of the
infantry. Our line is broken and we are pushed back nearly to the river.” Grant
made no reply
and McPherson impatiently asked what he intended to do. “Do? Why
re-form the lines and attack at daybreak. Won’t they be surprised!” Surprised
they were. The Confederate troops were routed before nine o’clock that morning.
No one is defeated until he
gives up. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Perseverance
Here is the biography of a
failure…
A man who had less than
three years of formal education failed in business in ’31
was elected to the
legislature in ’34
defeated for speaker in ’38
defeated for elector in ’40
defeated for Congress in ’43
elected to Congress in ’46 and defeated in ’48
defeated for Senate in ’55
defeated for the Vice Presidential nomination in
’56
defeated for the Senate in ’58.
His name? Abraham Lincoln. ── Michael
P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
Rocky
the motion picture that
won three Academy Awards
tells the story of a small-time boxer given the
opportunity of a lifetime-the chance to fight the undisputed world heavyweight
boxing champ. After weeks of punishing
grueling training
on the evening of
the fight Rocky finally admitted the futility of his effort
“Who am I trying
to kid?” he pondered
“I’m not even in the same class with da guy. But I gotta
go da distance. I gotta go da distance.”
Rocky Balboa set as his
goal to go all fifteen rounds. He wanted to hang in there when he knew every
muscle in his body would scream to quit. He wanted to endure under pressure. As
a fighter
he wanted to go the full distance. The fight began
but in round one
Rocky was knocked down. The count commenced
but after wildly shaking his head
back and forth
he struggled to his feet and lasted not just one or two more
rounds
but all fifteen. He was able to go the distance because
during training
his body had been subjected to grueling preparation. Daily he had driven
himself to the point of exhaustion. One-arm push-ups
back-bending sit-ups
sprinting
sparring-this had all been part of his schedule of training.
The design of a demanding
training schedule enabled Rocky to endure. Perseverance in any great test comes
as a result of disciplined preparation in the ordinary days. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
Babe Ruth struck out 1
330
times. So keep on swinging! ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
A teenager had decided to
quit high school
saying he was just fed up with it all. His father was trying
to convince him to stay with it. “Son
” he said
“you just can’t quit. All the
people who are remembered in history didn’t quit. Abe Lincoln
he didn’t quit.
Thomas Edison
he didn’t quit. Douglas MacArthur
he didn’t quit. Elmo
McCringle…”
“Who?” the son burst in.
“Who’s Elmo McCringle?”
“See
” the father replied
“you don’t remember him. He quit!” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Motivation
The story has been told
about a frog who fell in a large pothole and couldn’t get
out. Even his friends couldn’t get him to muster enough
strength to jump out of the deep pothole. They gave him up to his fate. But the
next day they saw him bounding around just fine. Somehow he had made it out
and so they asked him how he did it
adding
“We thought you couldn’t get
out.”
The frog replied
“I couldn’t
but a truck came along
and I had to.”
──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Motivation
In his book Dedication
and Leadership (South Bend
Univ. of Notre Dame Press
1966)
on why
Communism has more apparent success than Christianity in reaching out to new
areas
Douglas Hyde said: “If
on the other hand
the
majority of members
from the leaders down
are characterized by their
single-minded devotion to the cause
if it is quite clear that the majority are
giving until it hurts… then those who consider
joining will assume that this is what will be expected of them. If they
nonetheless make the decision to join they will come already conditioned to
sacrifice till it hurts.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Persistence
A common phenomenon in
nature is “the path of least resistance.”
Electricity moving through a circuit will always travel where it has the “easiest”
route. Cars are developed aerodynamically so there will be minimal wind
resistance. Rivers always travel around a mountain because it is easier than
going through one.
Frequently people are like
that
too. It is easier to sit in front of the T.V. than to care for a neighbor’s
needs. It is easier to get angry at your mate and let that anger diminish (or
smolder) over the course of time rather than sitting down and working the
problem through. Thumbing through a Reader’s
Digest is
much easier than a time of personal Bible study. And so we find that we humans
are prone to take the “path of least resistance.”
But there is one difference
between ourselves and electricity or a river. They will never have to give an
account of what they have done. We will. Thus
perhaps we should incline
ourselves to take the path of greatest persistence. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
The Greeks had
a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner
who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I
want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him.
J. Stowell
Fan
The Flame
Moody
1986
p. 32.
Motivation
Dr. Frederik Herzberg
writing in the Harvard Business Review
concluded from his research that six
factors must be present to keep people highly motivated about sustained
responsibility:
1.Achievement
2.Recognition
3.The task itself
4.Responsibility
5.Advancement
6.
──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
Two frogs
fell into a can of cream
Or so I’ve heard it told.
The sides of the can were
shiny and steep
The cream was deep and
cold.
“Oh
what’s the use?”
croaked number one.
“Tis fate
no help’s
around.
Good=bye
my friend!
Good-bye
sad world!”
And weeping still
he
drowned.
But number two
of sterner
stuff
Dog-paddled in surprise.
The while he wiped his
creamy face
And dried his creamy eyes.
“I’ll swim awhile at least
”
he said
Or so I’ve heard he said;
“It really wouldn’t help
the world
If one more frog were
dead.”
An hour or two he kicked
and swam
Not once he stopped to
mutter
But kicked and kicked and
swam and kicked
Then hopped out
via
butter!
──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Perseverance
It is better to limp in the
way
than to run with swiftness out of it.— John Calvin
Perseverance
I would rather fail in a
cause that will someday triumph
than triumph in a cause that will someday
fail.— Woodrow Wilson
Perseverance
One
of my favorite quotations was given to us by the great Samuel Johnson. He said
"Great works are performed
not by strength but by perseverance.
He that shall walk with vigor
three hours a day
will pass
in seven
years
a space equal to the circumference of the globe." ── Michael P.
Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Young William Wilberforce
was discouraged one night in the early 1790s after another defeat in his 10
year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired and frustrated
he opened
his Bible and began to leaf through it. A small piece of paper fell out and
fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John Wesley shortly before
his death. Wilberforce read it again: "Unless the divine power has raised
you up... I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing
that (abominable practice of slavery)
which is the scandal of religion
of
England
and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing
you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for
you
who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh
be
not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God
and in the power of His
might."
Daily Bread
June 16
1989.
Ready for a baseball
trivia question? Who is Clint Courtney? If you're unsure
don't bother
requesting the answer from Cooperstown
N.Y. Clint never came close to making
it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In fact
it's very doubtful that his picture
appeared on any bubble gum cards. This guy wasn't a legend in his own time --
not even in his own mind. He was only a memory maker for his family
and a few
die-hard fans who were inspired by his tremendous fortitude. Clint played
catcher for the Baltimore Orioles in the 1950s. During his career he earned the
nickname of Scrap Iron
implying that he was hard
weathered
tough. Old Scrap
broke no records -- only bones. He had little power or speed on the base paths.
As for grace and style
he made the easiest play look rather difficult. But
armed with mitt and mask
Scrap Iron never flinched from any challenge.
Batters often missed the
ball and caught his shin. Their foul tips nipped his elbow. Runners fiercely
plowed into him
spikes first
as he defended home plate. Though often doubled
over in agony
and flattened in a heap of dust
Clint Courtney never quit.
Invariably
he'd slowly get up
shake off the dust
punch the pocket of his
mitt once
twice
and nod to his pitcher to throw another one. The game would
go on and Courtney with it -- scarred
bruised
clutching his arm in pain
but
determined to continue. He resembled a POW with tape
splints
braces
and
other kinds of paraphernalia that wounded people wear. Some made fun of him --
calling him a masochist. Insane. Others remember him as a true champion.
Jon Johnston
Courage -
You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear
1990
SP Publications
pp. 35-36.
One day George Muller
began praying for five of his friends. After many months
one of them came to
the Lord. Ten years later
two others were converted. It took 25 years before
the fourth man was saved. Muller persevered in prayer until his death for the
fifth friend
and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he
would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded
for soon after Muller's funeral
the last one was saved.
Our Daily Bread.
The story is told that
Andrew Jackson's boyhood friends just couldn't understand how he became a
famous general and then the President of the United States. They knew of other
men who had greater talent but who never succeeded. One of Jackson's friends
said
"Why
Jim Brown
who lived right down the pike from Jackson
was not
only smarter but he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling
match. But look where Andy is now." Another friend responded
"How
did there happen to be a fourth time? Didn't they usually say three times and
out?" "Sure
they were supposed to
but not Andy. He would never
admit he was beat -- he would never stay 'throwed.' Jim Brown would get tired
and on the fourth try Andrew Jackson would throw him and be the winner."
Picking up on that idea
someone has said
"The thing that counts is not
how many times you are 'throwed
' but whether you are willing to stay 'throwed'."
We may face setbacks
but we must take courage and go forward in faith. Then
through the Holy Spirit's power we can be the eventual victor over sin and the
world. The battle is the Lord's
so there is no excuse for us to stay
"throwed"!
Our Daily Bread.
In his book
Pastoral
Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay (Bethany)
Craig Brian Larson
writes:
"In 1972
NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According
to Leon Jaroff in Time
the satellite's primary mission was to reach
Jupiter
photograph the planet and its moons
and beam data to earth about
Jupiter's magnetic field
radiation belts
and atmosphere. Scientists regarded
this as a bold plan
for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond
Mars
and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it
could reach its target.
"But Pioneer 10
accomplished its mission and much
much more. Swinging past the giant planet in
November 1973
Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of
speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun
Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles
it hurtled past Uranus;
Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By
1997
twenty-five years after its launch
Pioneer 10 was more than six billion
miles from the sun.
"And despite that
immense distance
Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists
on Earth. 'Perhaps most remarkable
' writes Jaroff
'those signals emanate from
an 8-watt transmitter
which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night
light
and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.'
"The Little Satellite
That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10
with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple
longevity
its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone
thought possible.
"So it is when we
offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with
8-watt abilities. God cannot work
however
through someone who quits."
Philippians 3:12-14
Hebrews 12:1 Mark 10:45
Craig Brian Larson
Pastoral
Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay
Bethany.
When she was young
Florence Chadwick wanted desperately to be a great speed swimmer. At the age of
six she persuaded her parents to enter her in a 50-yard race. She came in last
so she practiced every day for the new year. Again she entered and lost. When
she was an 11-year old
Florence won attention and praise for completing the
San Diego Bay endurance swim -- 6 miles in all. But she still wanted to be a
speed swimmer. At 14 she tried for the national backstroke championship but
came in second to the great Eleanor Holm. At 18 she tried out for Olympic speed
swimming and came in fourth -- only three made the team. Frustrated
she gave
it up
married
and moved on to other interests. As she matured
however
Florence began to wonder if she might not have done better if she had
specialized in endurance swimming
something that came more naturally. So
with
the help of her father
she began swimming distances again. Twelve years after
she had failed to make the Olympic team
Florence Chadwick swam the English
Channel
breaking Gertrude Ederle's 24-year-old record. It took a little time
but eventually she found out what she could do best and did it.
Crossroads
Issue No. 7
p. 19.
From the booklet Bits
and Pieces comes an interesting story about Florence Chadwick
the first
woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. On the Fourth of July in
1951
she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. The
challenge was not so much the distance
but the bone-chilling waters of the
Pacific. To complicate matters
a dense fog lay over the entire area
making it
impossible for her to see land. After about 15 hours in the water
and within a
half mile of her goal
Chadwick gave up. Later she told a reporter
"Look
I'm not excusing myself. But if I could have seen land
I might have made
it." Not long afterward she attempted the feat again.
Once more a misty veil
obscured the coastline and she couldn't see the shore. But this time she made
it because she kept reminding herself that land was there. With that confidence
she bravely swam on and achieved her goal. In fact
she broke the men's record
by 2 hours!
Our Daily
Bread.
Famous People Who Were
Slow Starters:
Winston Churchill seemed
so dull as a youth that his father thought he might be incapable of earning a
living in England. Charles Darwin did so poorly in school that his father once
told him
"You will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.
G.K. Chesterton
the
English writer
could not read until he was eight. One of his teachers told
him
"If we could open your head we should not find any brain but only a
lump of white fat."
Thomas Edison's first
teacher described him as "addled
" and his father almost convinced
him he was a "dunce."
Albert Einstein's parents
feared their child was dull
and he performed so badly in all high school
courses except mathematics that a teacher asked him to drop out.
Irving Wallace
Book of
Lists
1986
Wm. Morrow & Co.
Ny
Ny.
Don't let your troubles
get you down. Genghis Khan
the 13th century Mongol conqueror
asked his
philosophers to come up with a truth that would always be unchangeable.
Thinking on it for a while
they came to their leaders with this quote:
"It too shall pass." This reminds me of a dear black lady who was
asked by her pastor what her favorite verse of Scripture was and she said:
"And it came to pass." God in His mercy never gives us more than we
are able to bear.
The Abingdon Disciple.
Ill Epigrams on
Perseverance
- There aren't any
hard-and-fast rules for getting ahead in the world -- just hard ones.
- You don't have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days.
- There is no poverty that can overtake diligence. -Japanese proverb
- By perseverance the snail reached the Ark. -Spurgeon
- Triumph is just "umph" added to try.
Source Unknown.
Author Irving Stone has
spent a lifetime studying greatness
writing novelized biographies of such men
as Michelangelo
Vincent van Gogh
Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin. Stone was
once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these
exceptional people. He said
"I write about people who sometime in their
life...have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished...and
they go to work.
"They are beaten over
the head
knocked down
vilified and for years they get nowhere. But every time
they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the
end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out
to do."
Crossroads
Issue No. 7
p. 18.
Bette Nesmith had a good
secretarial job in a Dallas bank when she ran across a problem that interested
her. Wasn't there a better way to correct the errors she made on her electric
typewriter? Bette had some art experience and she knew that artists who worked
in oils just painted over their errors. Maybe that would work for her too. So
she concocted a fluid to paint over her typing errors. Before long
all the
secretaries in her building were using what she then called
"MistakeOut". She attempted to sell the product idea to marketing
agencies and various companies (including IBM)
but they turned her down.
However
secretaries continued to like her product
so Bette Nesmith's kitchen
became her first manufacturing facility and she started selling it on her own.
When Bette Nesmith sold the enterprise
the tiny white bottles were earning
$3.5 million annually on sales of $38 million. The buyer was Gillette Company
and the sale price was $47.5 million.
Crossroads
Issue No. 7
pp. 3-4.
"American history
shall march along that skyline
" announced Gutzon Borglum in 1924
gazing
at the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 1927 Borglum began sculpting the images
of George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Jefferson
and Theodore Roosevelt
on the granite face of 6
000-foot Mount Rushmore. Most of the sculpting was
done by experienced miners under Borglum's direction. Working with jackhammers
and dynamite
they removed some 400
000 tons of outer rock
cutting within
three inches of the final surface. When Borglum died in March 1941
his dream
of the world's biggest sculpture was near completion. His son Lincoln finished
the work that October
some 14 years after it was begun.
Today in the Word
January 2
1993.
Have you ever worked to
get better at something? If so
you soon realized that the cliche
"practice makes perfect" is true. Olympic Athletes seem to succeed
with effortless grace
but their performances aren't as easy as they look. The
average Olympian trains four hours a day at least 310 days a year for six years
before succeeding. Getting better begins with working out every day. By 7:a.m.
most athletes have done more than many people do all day. How well an athlete
performs is often attributed to mental toughness. But performance really
depends on physical capacity to do work. That capacity is based on two
factors--genetic talent and the quality of the training program. Good training
makes up for some limitations
but most of us will never be Olympians no matter
how hard we work. We haven't inherited the right combination of endurance
potential
speed and muscle. But given equal talent
the better-trained athlete
can generally outperform the one who did not give a serious effort
and is
usually more confident at the starting block.
The four years before an
Olympics
Greg Louganis probably practiced each of his dives 3
000 times. Kim
Zmeskal has probably done every flip in her gynmastics routine at least 20
000
times
and Janet Evans has completed more than 240
000 laps. Training works
but it isn't easy or simple. Swimmers train an average of 10 miles a day
at
speeds of 5 mph in the pool. That might not sound fast
but their heart rates
average 160 the entire time. Try running up a flight of stairs
then check your
heart rate. Then imagine having to do that for four hours! Marathon runners
average 160 miles a week at 10 mph. Two important training principles must be
followed: Progressively increase the amount and intensity of the work. Train
specifically. Weightlifters don't run sprints
and basketball players don't
swim.
John Troup
USA Today
July 29
1992
11E.
There is nothing so fatal
to character as half-finished tasks.
David Lloyd George.
During the Vietnam War the
Texas Computer millionaire
H. Ross Perot decided he would give a Christmas
present to every American prisoner of war in Vietnam. According to David Frost
who tells the story
Perot had thousands of packages wrapped and prepared for
shipping. He chartered a fleet of Boeing 707s to deliver them to Hanoi
but the
war was at its height
and the Hanoi government said it would refuse to
cooperate. No charity was possible
officials explained
while American bombers
were devastating Vietnamese villages. The wealthy Perot offered to hire an
American construction firm to help rebuild what Americans had knocked down. The
government still wouldn't cooperate. Christmas drew near
and the packages were
unsent. Refusing to give up
Perot finally took off in his chartered fleet and
flew to Moscow
where his aides mailed the packages
one at a time
at the
Moscow central post office. They were delivered intact.
Source Unknown.
Wilma didn't get much of a
head start in life. A bout with polio left her left leg crooked and her foot
twisted inward so she had to wear leg braces. After seven years of painful
therapy
she could walk without her braces. At age 12 Wilma tried out for a girls
basketball team
but didn't make it. Determined
she practiced with a
girlfriend and two boys every day. The next year she made the team. When a
college track coach saw her during a game
he talked her into letting him train
her as a runner. By age 14 she had outrun the fastest sprinters in the U.S. In
1956 Wilma made the U.S. Olympic team
but showed poorly. That bitter
disappointment motivated her to work harder for the 1960 Olympics in Rome--and
there Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals
the most a woman had ever won.
Today in the Word
Moody Bible
Institute
Jan
1992
p.10.
Ignace Jan Paderewski
the
famous Polish composer-pianist
was once scheduled to perform at a great
American concert hall for a high-society extravaganza. In the audience was a
mother with her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting
the boy slipped
away from her side
strangely drawn to the Steinway on the stage. Without much
notice from the audience
he sat down at the stool and began playing
"chopsticks." The roar of the crowd turned to shouts as hundreds
yelled
"Get that boy away from there!" When Paderewski heard the
uproar backstage
he grabbed his coat and rushed over behind the boy. Reaching
around him from behind
the master began to improvise a countermelody to "Chopsticks."
As the two of them played together
Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's
ear
"Keep going. Don't quit
son...don't stop...don't stop."
Today in the Word
Moody Bible
Institute
Jan
1992
p.8.
Persistence paid off for
American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh
who discovered the planet Pluto. After
astronomers calculated a probable orbit for this "suspected" heavenly
body
Tombaugh took up the search in March 1929. Time magazine recorded the
investigation: "He examined scores of telescopic photographs each showing
tens of thousands of star images in pairs under the dual microscope. It often
took three days to scan a single pair. It was exhausting
eye-cracking work--in
his own words
'brutal
tediousness.' And it went on for months. Star by star
he examined 20 million images. Then on February 18
1930
as he was blinking at
a pair of photographs in the constellation Gemini
'I suddenly came upon the
image of Pluto!" It was the most dramatic astronomic discovery in nearly
100 years.
Today in the Word
November 26
1991.
Tenacity is a pretty fair
substitute for bravery
and the best form of tenacity I know is expressed in a
Danish fur trapper's principle: "The next mile is the only one a person
really has to make."
Eric Sevareid
Bits and
Pieces
September 19
1991
p. 19.
Postage stamps are getting
more expensive
but at least they have one attribute that most of us could
emulate: they stick to one thing until they get there.
Source Unknown.
Nothing in this world can
take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than
unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a
proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press
on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge
in Bits
and Pieces.
Plato wrote the first
sentence of his famous Republic nine different ways before he was satisfied.
Cicero practiced speaking before friends every day for thirty years to perfect
his elocution. Noah Webster labored 36 years writing his dictionary
crossing
the Atlantic twice to gather material. Milton rose at 4:00 am every day in
order to have enough hours for his Paradise Lost. Gibbon spent 26 years on his
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Bryant rewrote one of his poetic
masterpieces 99 times before publication
and it became a classic.
It is said that Thomas
Edison performed 50
000 (sic) experiments before he succeeded in producing a
storage battery. We might assume the famous inventor would have had some
serious doubts along the way. But when asked if he ever became discouraged
working so long without results
Edison replied
"Results? Why
I know
50
000 things that won't work."
Today in the Word
August
1990.
"Genius is 2%
inspiration and 98 % perspiration" (Thomas Edison). Edison worked 18 hour
days and practiced Herculean patience. Once he recognized the value of an idea
Edison stayed with the process until he discovered its secret. His alkaline
storage battery became a reality after 10
000 (sic) failed experiments!
Today In The Word
June
1988
p.35.
On March 6
1987
Eamon
Coghlan
the Irish world record holder at 1500 meters
was running in a
qualifying heat at the World Indoor Track Championships in Indianapolis. With
two and a half laps left
he was tripped. He fell
but he got up and with great
effort managed to catch the leaders. With only 20 yards left in the race
he
was in third place -- good enough to qualify for the finals. He looked over his
shoulder to the inside
and
seeing no one
he let up. But another runner
charging hard on the outside
passed Coughlan a yard before the finish
thus
eliminating him from the finals. Coughlan's great comeback effort was rendered
worthless by taking his eyes off the finish line. It's tempting to let up when
the sights around us look favorable. But we finish well in the Christian race
only when we fix our eyes on the goal: Jesus Christ
Source Unknown.
During a Monday night
football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants
one of the
announcers observed that Walter Payton
the Bears' running back
had
accumulated over nine miles in career rushing yardage. The other announcer
remarked
"Yeah
and that's with somebody knocking him down every 4.6
yards!" Walter Payton
the most successful running back ever
knows that
everyone --even the very best-- gets knocked down. The key to success is to get
up and run again just as hard.
Jeff Quandt
Irving
Wallace
Book of Lists
1980.
Nineteenth-century
inventor Gail Borden was obsessed with the idea of condensing food. His first
effort
a condensed "meat biscuit
" failed miserably. But an ocean
voyage gave birth to a better idea. Borden was concerned about the sickly
condition of the children on board. Cows on the ship were too seasick to
produce healthy milk
and four children died from drinking contaminated milk.
Borden was determined to condense milk so that it would be safe and easily
transported. After many tries
he devised a vacuum process that removed water
from milk. Conditions during the Civil War made the canned milk a success
and
Borden make a fortune. His epitaph
inscribed on a tomb the shape of a milk
can
was
"I tried and failed; I tried again and again
and
succeeded."
Discipleship Journal
#48
p. 33.
No doubt you have heard
this one but it is worth repeating for obvious reasons.
The value of courage
persistence
and perseverance has rarely been illustrated more convincingly
than in the life story of this man (his age appears on the right):
Failed in business 22
Ran for Legislature--defeated 23
Again failed in business 24
Elected to Legislature 25
sweetheart died 26
Had a nervous breakdown 27
Defeated for Speaker 29
Defeated for Elector 31
Defeated for Congress 34
Elected to Congress 37
Defeated for Congress 39
Defeated for Senate 46
Defeated for Vice President 47
Defeated for Senate 49
Elected President of the United States 51
That's the record of
Abraham Lincoln.
Bits and Pieces
July 1989.
Imagine that you are a
world-class concert pianist at the peak of your career
someone who has spent
years studying and practicing to develop your art. Your fingers respond
instantly to your mental commands
flitting along the keyboard with grace and
speed. Then one day you feel a stiffness that wasn't there before. You go to a
doctor
tests are done
and the diagnosis comes back: Arthritis. Your fingers
are destined to become wooden and crippled. From the heights of success and
acclaim you will plunge to oblivion. It happened to Byron Janis. Within a short
time this concert pianist saw arthritis quickly spread to all his fingers
and
the joints of nine of them fused. Some people would have never recovered from
such a blow
but Janis decided to fight back. He kept his ailment a secret from
all but his wife and two close friends. He worked long hours to change his
technique. He learned how to use what strengths he had instead of concentrating
on his weaknesses. He also used a regimen of medications
acupuncture
ultrasound
and even hypnosis to deal with the pain. His wife learned how to
give him theraputic massages to loosen his stiff joints. Through hard work and
sheer determination
Janis was able to continue his career. He maintained a
full concert schedule for 12 years without anyone suspecting. Finally
he told
the world at a White House concert in 1985. These days
he is active in
fund-raising for the Arthritis Foundation and still plays the piano. He credits
faith
and hope
and will for his success and says
"I have arthritis
but
it doesn't have me."
Bits and Pieces
August
1989.
Theologian John Calvin was
afflicted with rheumatism and migraine headaches. Yet he preached
wrote books
and governed Geneva
Switzerland
for 25 years.
Source Unknown.
John Killinger retells
this story from Atlantic Monthly about the days of the great western cattle
rancher: "A little burro sometimes would be harnessed to a wild steed.
Bucking and raging
convulsing like drunken sailors
the two would be turned loose
like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen
disappearing over the horizon
the great steed dragging that litle burro along
and throwing him about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days
but eventually they would come back. The little burro would be seen first
trotting back across the horizon
leading the submissive steed in tow.
Somewhere out there on the rim of the world
that steed would become exhausted
from trying to get rid of the burro
and in that moment
the burro would take
mastery and become the leader. And that is the way it is with the kingdom and
its heroes
isn't it? The battle is to the determined
not to the outraged; to
the committed
not to those who are merely dramatic.
Leadership
Summer
1989.
Automobile genius Henry
Ford once came up with a revolutionary plan for a new kind of engine which we
know today as the V-8. Ford was eager to get his great new idea into
production. He had some men draw up the plans
and presented them to the
engineers. As the engineers studied the drawings
one by one they cane to the
same conclusion. Their visionary boss just didn't know much about the
fundamental principles of engineering. He'd have to be told gently--his dream
was impossible. Ford said
"Produce it anyway." They replied
"But it's impossible." "Go ahead
" Ford commanded
"and stay on the job until you succeed
no matter how much time is
required." For six months they struggled with drawing after drawing
design after design. Nothing. Another six months. Nothing. At the end of the
year Ford checked with his engineers and they once again told him that what he
wanted was impossible. Ford told them to keep going. They did. And they
discovered how to build a V-8 engine.
Napolean Hill
Think and
Grow Rich
1960.
From the diary of John
Wesley. . .
Sunday
A.M.
May
5 Preached in St. Anne's. Was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday
P.M.
May 5 Preached in St. John's. Deacons
said "Get out and stay out."
Sunday
A.M.
May 12 Preached in St. Jude's. Can't go back
there
either.
Sunday
A.M.
May 19 Preached in St. Somebody Else's. Deacons
called special meeting and said I couldn't return.
Sunday
P.M.
May 19 Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday
A.M.
May 26 Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow
as bull was turned loose during service.
Sunday
A.M.
June 2 Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked
off the highway.
Sunday
P.M.
June 2 Afternoon
preached in a pasture. Ten
thousand people came out to hear me.
John Wesley.
Persistence paid off for
American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh
who discovered the planet Pluto. After
astronomers calculated a probable orbit for this "suspected" heavenly
body
Tombaugh took up the search in March 1929. Time magazine recorded the
investigation: "He examined scores of telescopic photographs each showing
tens of thousands of star images in pairs under the dual microscope. It often
took three days to scan a single pair. It was exhausting
eye-cracking work--in
his own words
'brutal
tediousness.' And it went on for months. Star by star
he examined 20 million images. Then on February 18
1930
as he was blinking at
a pair of photographs in the constellation Gemini
'I suddenly came upon the
image of Pluto!" It was the most dramatic astronomic discovery in nearly
100 years.
Today in the Word
November 26
1991.
I look at a stone cutter
hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in
it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that
did it
but all that had gone before.
Reader's Digest
Jacob Riis.
An elderly lady was once
asked by a young man who had grown weary in the fight
whether he ought to give
up the struggle. "I am beaten every time
" he said dolefully. "I
feel I must give up." "Did you ever notice
" she replied
smiling into the troubled face before her
"that when the Lord told the
discouraged fishermen to cast their nets again
it was right in the same old
spot where they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing?"
Source Unknown.
(see also PERSISTENCE)
Ten
years ago for every wife who left her family
600 husbands did. Today for each
man who leaves
two women do.
Charles
Swindoll
Starting Over
1977
p. 20.
"I
often wish that I could lie down and sleep without waking. But I will fight it
out if I can." So wrote one of the bravest
most inspiring men who ever
lived
Sir Walter Scott. In his 56th year
failing in health
his wife dying of
an incurable disease
Scott was in debt a half million dollars. A publishing
firm he had invested in had collapsed. He might have taken bankruptcy
but
shrank from the stain. From his creditors he asked only time. Thus began his
race with death
a valiant effort to pay off the debt before he died.
Source
Unknown.
In
1972
NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon
Jaroff in Time
the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter
photograph the planet and its moons
and beam data to earth about Jupiter's
magnetic field
radiation belts
and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a
bold plan
for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars
and
they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach
its target.
But
Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much
much more. Swinging past the
giant planet in November 1973
Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a
higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles
from the sun
Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles
it hurtled
past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four
billion miles. By 1997
twenty-five years after its launch
Pioneer 10 was more
than six billion miles from the sun.
And
despite that immense distance
Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals
to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable
" writes Jaroff
"those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter
which radiates about as
much power as a bedroom night light
and takes more than nine hours to reach
Earth."
The
Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers
designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going
and going. By simple longevity
its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished
more than anyone thought possible.
So
it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through
someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work
however
through someone who
quits.
Craig
Brian Larson
Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay
Bethany.