“When I was going through my transition of being famous, I tried to ask God why was I here? what was my purpose? Surely, it wasn't just to win three gold medals. There has to be more to this life than that.” W.R.
This past Sunday we read the Gospel of Luke 5: 1 – 11 about the fishermen who continually put out their nets but caught no fish. Jesus instructs Simon to put their nets out once more. Simon was hesitant as they had been doing this all night and nothing. But he did so and they came up with so much fish it almost sank their 2 boats. Simon was astonished and felt he was not worthy of Jesus. But Jesus told him and the fishermen, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
Father Kirby said in his homily of the Gospel that this shows us with perseverance+Jesus+prayer= will always equal success. Father Kirby gave us an example of this when he began telling us the biography of this girl who was born premature. She was born prematurely at 4.5 lbs., with 19 brothers and sisters, and caught "infantile paralysis" (caused by the polio virus) as a very young child. She recovered, but wore a brace on her left leg and foot which had become twisted as a result. By the time she was twelve years old, she had also survived scarlet fever, whooping cough, chicken pox and measles. At that time their were no vaccines for these childhood illnesses. Doctors told her parents she would never walk again without her brace. But with perseverance and prayers to God, she secretly practiced walking without her brace. And not only did she end up being able to walk without it, she earned an Olympic bronze medal at the age of 16 for the 4 x 100 meter relay. 4 years after that won 3 Olympic gold medals for track competitions! Father Kirby told us this was the story of Wilma Rudolph. I was so inspired by it!
Sometimes we just don't see the small successes in our lives. Or don't feel as if God is answering our prayers. But with Him in our lives, the outcome will always = success no matter how you look at it.
2 comments:
Love it, thanks for sharing Melissa.
It reminds me of a story of a grandmother cross-stitching. The little grand daughter can only see the bottom of it with jumbled up colors, big messy loops and no pattern whatsoever... she had no idea what her grandmother was doing until it was complete she showed her the top and it was a beautiful sunrise. Often that's how it seems God works in our lives, we think our lives are messy, inconsistent and crazy, but what God is doing is creating a beautiful soul, that he could always see from the beginning. :)
...perseverance+Jesus+prayer= will always equal success...AMEN
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