Hurdles are Opportunities to Overcome

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Ps 139:14 AV)

I was reminded recently that how we are created is directly by the hand of God and God does not make mistakes.  This is not to be understood by those who claim un-biblical standards for man like gender fluidity.  The Bible clearly states God makes only two genders.  If you are confused, a simple exam or glance in the mirror should clear that up.  More to the point, God allows us all to be created imperfectly.  There are physical, mental, or emotional issues which we all must overcome.  Some far more severe than others.  But they are there.  What we must realize is these conditions are not hindrances.  They are opportunities.  God allowed us to be created imperfectly.  Not so that we can seek to avoid them, but rather, to embrace and overcome them.   Let me explain.

I am reading a book on 50 famous Christians of the last three hundred years.  Like Paul the Apostle who had a thorn in the flesh, many of them had serious health or mental issues.  Not psychotic.  More in the realm of attention or learning issues.  What is common among some of our greatest and most admirable servants for Christ is their tenacity to overcome their adversity contributed to their impact on our faith.  It seems the harder they struggled with a personal issue, the more fruit they realized in their ministry.  The same was true of Paul.  God never removed his thorn in the flesh.  Many think his thorn is the flesh was his eyesight.  He remarks in his letter to the Galatians he has written a large letter by his hand.  Galatians is relatively small compared to Roman and the Corinthians.  Galatians was one of the first books Paul wrote.  If his eyesight was indeed his problem, it wasn’t a good one seeing as how his ministry would be comprised of much writing.  But the LORD was able to use it as Paul surrendered to it.

We do ourselves and others a great disservice by allowing for the surrender of ambition to a debilitating situation.  We give up and never truly realize how great of a God we serve because we do not believe even God can overcome or challenge.  The old timers saw their hurdles as an opportunity.  They never saw them as an unmovable obstacle.  If there is a hurdle, and one cannot jump over it, then find a way around it.  Many years ago, I had very poor eyesight.  Due to several concussions suffered as a child, after one such accident, my eyes were so bad, I could not function at all without glasses.  In the midst of this, I played baseball.  I became the starting pitcher or our team.  All while wearing coke bottles for glasses.  Perseverance is a valuable lesson to learn.  But it can only be learned by adversity.