Life’s experiences have taught me that when I am low I can be high, when I am sick I can be well, when I am depressed I can be exuberant, and that when I am poor I can be rich.
Success has never taught me anything of great significance. Oh maybe one thing – the need to remain humble.
But it has been in failure that this pupil has been ready to learn. It has been in the depths of despair, and in the blockade of bumbling that I have become wealthy with the riches obtained while dwelling in the state of a pauper.
For it is in the land called low, the shire called sick, the district called depressed, and the province called poor that I have come to realize that without a life yielded to the one who breathed life in the first place into this clump of mud – a man is nothing – a wisp of wind that is here one minute and then, in a breath, is gone.
And it is at that point that in my weakness I have been made strong. In my sickness I have been made whole, and in my poverty I have become rich. From depression I have been transported into a state of oppression – oppressing the very demons of doubt and crushing underfoot the gremlins of guilt that have harassed me. From inactivity I have instantly sprung into a state of action – overcoming fear with every step forward.
What began as a gentle whisper in my ear, ‘You can do it’ has grown into a mighty crescendo within my heart until it explodes with an almighty shout, ‘YOU CAN DO IT!’
Belief is forged, as fresh iron in the fiery trial, and my friend ‘failure’accompanies me to introduce me to my two new friends – ‘success’ and ‘humility’. For together they make me strong, and they equip me to reach out to those who are on their own journey – those who are still trying to come to grips with their understanding of the richness of poverty that they are experiencing in their own lives.
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