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Today's Bible Verse:

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance" (Romans 5:3)

 

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I Keep Going

In my lifetime I have had the honor of meeting some of the most fascinating people.

What made them fascinating to me wasn't what they did for a living, where they had been, or any particular gift or talent they had.

They were survivors.

I can even take it a bit further by saying they hadn't survived major catastrophes or wars.

They didn't survive a plane crash, auto accident, fire or any other worldly event.

They survived life.

Time and again I heard them speak about great financial loss. They spoke to me about industry wide layoffs. They shared marriage break ups, family struggles or major weight loss or gain.

You might say, "These are the things of life! So what?"

There are many who don't survive such things. They get locked in a world of regret, fear, loneliness and failure.

They lose hope.

Imagine for a moment thinking there was no hope.

Almost every single person I spoke to who had faced these "Things of life," always answered the same way when asked, "How do you survive?"

"I keep going."

That's it. That is the key to surviving life. One must always keep going.

I am a story teller. Everyone has one. Everyone.

If you wake up tomorrow, your story continues. Or begins again. You turn the page and write another chapter.

As a writer I can make the story begin and end anyway I want.

I am suggesting you can, too.

Why not do what this writer does and write the last line and work back?

"I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense ofhow that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin."

John Irving

How do you want your story to end? Write the last line and work back.

We each survive in our own ways. Some outwardly, some inwardly.

When you see each face passing by tomorrow look quickly at their eyes. Ask yourself, "How did they make it this far?"

In God's greater plan you and they cross paths in that moment for a reason. How sad it would be not to notice. How incredibly wasteful it is to let anyone pass by without acknowledging their being.

Even if we only get to look in their eyes, we get to take away a piece of that wonderous moment of two souls, two expressions of God's Love in the world.

Steal the wonder of it all and be grateful that they had the chance to see into your eyes, too.

I believe there is an exchange that occurs in that moment. We re-energize each other. We power each other up by making the journey, our place here more inhabitable.

We talk of space travel to other planets. Imagine that feeling of being on a planet with no one else around.

One can have that same feeling in a crowded elevator.

Yes, look in their eyes tomorrow and think, "Hey, I see you made it, too!"

Life is not about our struggles. It's about our surviving.

"If a blade of grass can grow in a concrete walk and a fig tree in the side of a mountain cliff, a human being empowered with an invincible faith can survive all odds the world can throw against his tortured soul." Rev Robert H. Schuller

As for me? "I keep going!"

Bob Perks

Announcement:

Would you like to be blessed by reading testimonies of people who've experienced answered prayers? Go to the Sermon Illustrator and enjoy! You will discover how awesome our God is!

A big thank you to all vetrans who never gave up.  Thank you for your faithful service.

©Copyright 2011 Answers2Prayer | Matt 10:8 "Freely you have received, freely give."