I absolutely love under-dog stories or stories of people overcoming the odds in order to accomplish incredible feats. To me these stories are essential to what it means to be an American. The whole pick yourself up by the bootstraps mentality. Nevertheless, it does not have to be just an American idea. Throughout the world, countless people have overcome great obstacles.
Helen Keller was blind and deaf. Beethoven began to lose his hearing at the height of his career. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Winston Churchill all had some form of learning disability. James Earl Jones still struggles with a speech impediment. Jackie Joyner-Kersee was diagnosed with asthma at 18. J.K. Rowling was a divorced single mom living on welfare when she had the idea for the Harry Potter books. The list could easily go on.
I want to share the story today of another person who has had to pick themselves up off the ground countless times and yet has managed to somehow carry on. This person was the youngest of six children. Her parents were not rich and actually barely made ends meet most months. At her birth, an accident happened. Some of her mom’s blood got into the opening of her umbilical cord. This accident almost cost her life.
What the doctor’s did not know was that she had taken her father’s blood characteristics and by this accidental exposure to her mother’s blood, her white blood cells began to attack her own blood. As the result of an accident, she had developed leukemia. The doctor’s did not know what was going on inside her and sent her home. It was not until the family brought her back in that the doctors discovered what was going on. By this time, it was too late for standard treatments. Her only hope for survival was a full blood transfusion. The doctors made the decision to try. They inserted a tube into her head where they would introduce new blood and cut an artery on her ankle where the blood would drain out.
It worked and she survived. But after spending months in the NICU, when she was sent home she could not handle the noise and began to have constant meltdowns. The doctors told her parents to start adding whiskey to her bottles to make her pass out. After a few months, another problem arose she was now an infant alcoholic.
Fast forward and she graduated high school and enrolled in college. It was not very long before she met a man and they became engaged and later married. She left college having accomplished nothing towards her degree. Shortly, after her wedding she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl. The new family was happy but inside she felt hollow. She had always dreamed of having multiple children and so she wanted more. Nothing worked. She went through fertility drugs, in vitro-fertilization, you name it nothing worked. Her doctor told her at the age of 25 she would never again have children.
The day after their 8th wedding anniversary her husband walked out and their divorce was finalized on their 9th anniversary. Having nothing to call her own, other than her daughter she decided to go back to college. She completed a bachelor’s degree in a little over 3 years and then began her masters. She did not finish the masters, because she remarried and her new husband joined the military and they moved away. While in a new state with no friends, she found her passion – helping veterans. She went back to school and finished a master’s in family and marriage therapy with emphasis in military veterans. Since then she has worked with well over 5,000 veterans in one capacity or another. To top it off she has now given birth to a son and another daughter.
So who is this woman who should be dead from childhood leukemia, told she would never have children again, divorced, hit rock bottom, college graduate, master’s graduate, mother 2 more times, and advocate for military veterans? If you have not figured it out by now I am speaking of my wife, Tina Wells. She has had to pick herself up and carry on.
In the Old Testament book of Joshua, we read in chapter 1 verse 9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” She has held to this promise. She holds firm that God is going to do something amazing and even if He does not, she is going to praise Him.
When we are at our lowest, is often when He is getting ready to do something amazing. When we are ready to give up, God is reaching down. We just have to be strong and courageous. We cannot be afraid or get discouraged. We have to have faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Remember it is always darkest before the sunrises. You might not see what God is doing, but He is always working.
The tallest oak tree in the forest was once just a little nut that held its ground. It held. It stayed strong. Now it is the tallest tree in the forest. God wants to grow you into the tallest you possible. But you have to be strong and courageous. The process is slow but in the end, it is worth it.
When he was 67-years-old Thomas Edison’s workshop burnt to the ground. Instead of getting mad he said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.” You might think your life story is mundane and not very interesting. You would be wrong. Your story is whom you are and how you got to be where you are today. Tell it. Someone needs to hear it.
Be strong. Be courageous. Be YOU. The world needs you.
God bless,
Brandon
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