Great-Grandmother Earns Black Belt

            It’s the year 2000.

            Georgia Long is sixty-two years of age. She is a great grandmother, and she is in poor health.

            A grandson begins taking lessons in Kuk Sool Won, which is a martial art originating in Korea. Georgia takes him and asks if the instructor would allow her to do some of the stretching exercises along with the class; she thinks the stretching will help her get into better shape. The instructor hands her a workout uniform and tells her she has become a part of the class.

            Six months later, Georgia’s grandson quits. Georgia continues. She decides that in time, she can earn a black belt.

            Georgia perseveres with all of her heart. Over the course of three years, Georgia loses fifty pounds and lowers her blood pressure. Those are the fringe benefits. She also meets her goal; she earns her black belt.

            Georgia does not stop there. In October of 2003, she competes for the world championship in the over-45 age bracket.

            I like Georgia’s story. As one newspaper of the time recorded, she was “determined to go the distance….”

            In the Bible, Caleb was an old man who was determined to go the distance with God, and he did--wholeheartedly.

            We, too, should decide to wholeheartedly go the distance with God.

Down Syndrome Models

            I read something recently that made my heart skip a beat with gratitude. TARGET and NORDSTROM recently ran an advertising campaign, which featured photographs of beautiful and handsome girls and boys. What made one photograph special was the fact that one child, six-year-old Ryan Langston, has Down syndrome.

            Equally fascinating is the corporations made no reference to the fact that Ryan suffers from this disability. This heartens me because it alerts me to the fact that our society has come a long way.

            Time was when children suffering from this disability were placed in institutions at the encouragement of family physicians and doctors. Several factors have converged to change this.

            One factor has been leaders such as former Alabama football coach, Gene Stallings, and his family, who defied doctors' recommendations and raised their son, John Mark, as a fully integrated member of their family. Thousands, maybe millions, of American citizens had their attitudes transformed by the example of the Stallings family.

            Individuals and families like the Stallings-deeply committed Christians-also reveal to us the power of Christ-like lives to bring salt and light to our culture. So enjoy these advertisements from TARGET and NORSTROM, and, if you're so inclined, jot them a letter or an e-mail thanking them for doing so.

Source on Ryan Langston story: WORLD MAGAZINE 2/11/12

The Failed Son

         It is tough for a father to have a failure for a son. Such was the case for William, who lived near the town of Dearborn.

         William was farmer. William’s eldest son, Henry, always seemed to suffer from what we today call attention deficit disorder. He was not much help.

         As the child grew, he seemed an even greater disappointment. Farmer fathers typically yearn for their oldest son to stay and work the family farm. “Someday, all of this will be yours!” However, with little education, Henry left home for good at age 16.

         He wandered and for years never seemed to be able to settle down. The father wrote, "Henry is not much of a farmer. He's a tinkerer."

         William Ford lived near Dearborn, Michigan. The name of William’s son was Henry. Chances are, because of Henry, your lips utter William’s last name at least once a week.

*Source: APRIL 1865 by Jay Winik

The Difference Between “I Can’t” and “I Can”

           The following letter to Ann Landers appeared Saturday, January 4, 1986, in THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS:

 Dear Ann Landers:

            The rightness or wrongness of abortion aside, I would like to say a few words to those people who say that they are "financially and emotionally unable" to care for a handicapped child.

            My husband and I have six children from 12 years to 11 months old.  Our 12-year old daughter has severe cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or feed herself.  She speaks with great difficulty.  Not a day dawns when I feel either emotionally or financially able to care for my handicapped child and equal to facing the heartbreak and inconvenience.  But I do the best I can and somehow everything gets done.

            I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me, "I don't see how you do it.  You're remarkable! We couldn't get together the money to buy a new wheelchair and it would kill me."

            I used to smile when people would tell me how thankful they were for their healthy children and that they could never take care of a handicapped one.  I tell them they could handle whatever challenge they had to face.  I then explain brain damage does not always occur at birth.  A car accident, a high fever or an injury can cause as much damage as a congenital problem.

            Most of the brain-injured children I know sustained their injuries after birth.  Their parents are in a state of shock when the injury occurs, but like the rest of us they adjust to the tragedy and do the best they can.

            Life is not always fair and it wasn't meant to be. The same couple who decide to abort their baby because they learn through amniocentesis that the fetus is abnormal could have a car accident on their way home from the abortion clinic and wind up with a husband or wife who is in worse condition than the baby would have been.  Would they then say, "I can't  handle this emotionally or financially?"  I doubt it.  Somehow they would find the strength to do whatever is necessary.

            We parents of handicapped children are not superhuman nor are we emotional giants.  We just know that sometimes you have to take what life hands you and do the best you can with it.

            I know from my own life and the lives of the brave families I associate with that the difference between saying "I can't" and "I can" is often saying "I will".

-- Susan S. in Danville

Dear Susan:

            You've written a remarkably sensible letter and I thank you for it.  I know you don't consider yourself "special" but let me tell you, you are.  You didn't choose the role, but you are handling it with dignity and courage.  I doff my bonnet to you Susan, and to all the other out there who are traveling the same road.

          

Let’s Make a Church Together

Many years ago, in my Abilene days, I heard Rick Atchley tell a story about a Vacation Bible School, where the preacher's wife was teaching third graders.

It was Wednesday, midway through the Bible School, when into class came a little boy, who hadn't visited yet. The boy’s name was Davey.

Davey only had one arm. This made the teacher nervous because kids can be cruel, and she was afraid that somebody would do something or say something that would make him feel awkward.

Nevertheless, everything went fine. They got all the way to the end of class, when the bell rang. The teacher did what she did every day at VBS; she said, "Okay, children, let's make our churches." Then she said, "Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors..."

She got to that point, when right there in front of her eyes, the horror of what she had done hit her. She had asked the children to do the one thing the boy couldn't do. So the teacher simply stopped.

Without even a nervous pause, a little girl moved her desk next over to the little boy’s desk. She took his hand into her hand, and she said, "Davey, let's make the church together.”

Isn’t the church like that? Flawed members pool their resources together to offer God and the world a church that is whole.

Quadruple amputee Swims 21 Miles Across the English Channel

That’s the headline I read last week. Philippe Croizon is 42-years-old. Sixteen years ago, he was electrocuted when he touched a power line, while adjusting a TV antenna.

A few years ago, Croizon was watching a documentary on swimming the English Channel. Inspired, he began to dream of accomplishing the same. For two years, he trained using prosthetic flippers and a snorkel for breathing.

Saturday, September 18, Croizon began his quest at 8 a.m. GMT. After 13 hours and 30 minutes, Croizon completed the crossing. What amazes me almost as much is the fact that he finished 11 hours ahead of schedule. That means he planned to swim for 24 hours straight!

The Bible is full of people with excuses—see Adam, Eve, Moses, Jeremiah--and more. I guess that is the human tendency.

Certainly, I am not immune. Still, I’ll think about Croizon the next time I’m tempted to find an excuse.

When You Surrender Your Dream*

I am borrowing something I found in the Library of Congress’ magazine, CIVILIZATION. Ten years ago, I was sitting in the dentist office waiting to get in. I was reading to pass the time. A certain piece there gripped me. The following is a summary, and I give CIVILIZATION full credit for the writing.

"He was born in upstate New York in 1856.... He was one of the many wandering Americans of his generation. The late 1880s found him in Aberdeen, SD, first opening a department store and then working on a newspaper. A few years later he popped up in Chicago; he eventually settled in California. Along the way, he failed in the axle grease business, managed an opera house and a baseball team..., was a traveling salesman and a buyer for a department store before becoming the editor of THE STORE WINDOW for the National Association of Window Trimmers….

"After the publication of his first children's book, MOTHER GOOSE IN PROSE, the 39-year-old author inscribed a copy to his sister; it may well reveal the true disposition of [his] heart. 'My dear Mary, when I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For, aside from my evident inability to do anything [great], I have learned to regard fame as a will-o'-the-wisp, which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward."

That was it. He had given up. He resided himself to the reality of his life. He would never achieve the success that he had wanted. However, he did find a deeper joy—telling stories that pleased children.

Shortly thereafter, he wrote another book for children. The author, L. Frank Baum, gave it an unusual name—THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ.

*I “wrote” this story this yesterday morning. My proofreader, Sherry Bobbitt, has a sharp eye. She asked me if I had already written this story. I had. I wrote a longer version in June of last year in my weekly blog. Since some of you do not read my weekly blog, I hope you don’t mind me sharing a shorter version. I absolutely love this story.