Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."
-Charles Swindolln
Recently, our family took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to rent a house on the shore of Lake Michigan. We got into a conversation about some of the things I had done, where I had worked, and the inevitable questions, "what happened then?"They say life cannot be understood as you move from day to day, but if you look back over the decades it becomes pretty obvious there was a plan all along—a hand guiding you, even while you made mistakes or found yourself in a bad place. When you reach that point, the words from Romans 8:28 seem to speak directly to you: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Me? I am called? I never would have thought so. I could tell you stories! But the day I woke up in intensive care at Munson Medical Center in Travers City, Michigan, with a breathing tube down my throat, paralyzed from the neck down, I knew, I just knew God had his hand on me. My reaction was uncharacteristically one of peace and patience. I can't explain it; I felt held.
I looked at a calendar on the wall where the nurse had marked out seven days. I had suffered a catastrophic bicycle accident on Mackinac Island, had broken my neck, and was airlifted to Munson—100 miles away from where my family was vacationing. My wife says I tried to die two or three times during that week. Bells and buzzers would go off and a team of doctors and nurses would rush into the room.
It was a long, long way back. I learned how my reaction to my problem could open the door to healing. I never saw myself as a victim. I always knew I'd get better. I was grateful I was alive, and I never gave up on my therapy.
Today, I don't run marathons, but then I never did. I run the race before me, and my accident changed the way I looked at the purpose of my life and led me to the work we do at UNITE INDY. For that I will be forever grateful.
Charles Swindoll who heads a world-wide ministry, was a stutterer as a child. Ironically, the man who now preaches across the globe couldn't get a word out as a kid. I'm pretty sure there was a plan for him and there is a plan for you. It's all about how we react to the difficulties of life. Romans 8:28?
It's true for us all.
Jim
