Stepping Stones to Success

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will

uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." - Isaiah 41:10. 

Many achievements in life have come from a setback, an accident, or some kind of crisis or even suffering. For instance, the first cars had to be started by cranking the motor by hand. At times the engine would "kick" back the crank handle. This happened to Charles Kettering and it broke his arm.


"There must be a safer way to start cars than this," Kettering
reasoned and he went on to invent self-starters for cars.


Jacob Schick was prospecting for gold where the temperature fell to 40 degrees below zero. He had a hard time trying to shave with a blade without sufficient hot water—so he invented the first electric shaver.


Eugene O'Neill had no specific goal or aim in life until he became ill and had to go to hospital. While lying flat on his back he began to write his plays.


A number of years ago I had an accident on a construction site which put me in hospital for a week. For a few years I had been battling a sense of God's call to Christian service but never acted on it until I was flat on my back with time to think. It was there in the  hospital that I said, "Okay, God, you win. I know what you want me to do." That was the day I made the decision to go back to college to train for Christian ministry.


So, when things go wrong in your life and you experience a major setback, lose your job, or have an accident, perhaps God has something for you to learn, or something else he wants you to do. The important thing is to be open to what God is saying.


Often a disaster is "God's wake-up call" to teach us an important lesson, to help us grow, or to lead us in a different direction.


Most of us are not going to be struck down like Saul [Paul] was and hear a voice from heaven and be left blind for three days when God calls. Some of us, though, who are hardheaded have to be hit over the head as it were with a "four-by-four" for God to get our attention. But for most of us God leads through his Word, our circumstances, and through a "still small voice" within that gives us a sense of what God wants us to do.


"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples . . . As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'" (Acts 9:1,3-4, NIV).

The Good Ol' Days Or The God Days

"Say not, "Why were the former days better than these?" For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. In the day of prosperity be joyful,and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him." - Ecclesiastes 7:10,14- RSV. 


I often find myself longing for and desiring to live again in times
that have already passed me by. What is often referred to as "the good ol' days" is sometimes quite an alluring thought for me. Sometimes I find myself saying or wishing that things in my life could just be the way they were a few months ago, or maybe even a few years ago. It seems that "the good ol' days" are in fact quite dynamic and changing; rarely do we find that they remain the same.


Personally, I look back in my life to a time when I had no health
problems, no worries, and no stress, and then I begin to wonder why things had to change, why can't I go back to those days in my life and cast aside the pains and worries of today. For many, "the good ol' days" are the days when the stock market was at an all-time high, or when jobs and careers had reached a new pinnacle (but before the added responsibility began to add up). For others, they might be the true days of old when life was "simpler" and computers and technology did not run rampant like a pack of wolves. Some recall fondly a time when the value of a dollar was known and appreciated by all.


Solomon tells us in his wisdom, that, regardless of when those "good ol' days" might be, we should not let ourselves long for those days or compare our current place in life to those bygone days. He tells us that it is not from wisdom that we ask why the former days were better than these. Longing for those days cannot bring back the joy or contentment that we had, but, on the contrary, will bring only bitterness and sadness, as we find ourselves sulking in our current situation.


Solomon explains it best in verse 14 when he instructs us to remember that "God has made the one as well as the other." As children of God, our ultimate desire and happiness should be found in living within God's will. That, unfortunately, requires us to accept the bad with the good. God promised us a more abundant life if we would ask Him into our lives, but that abundance refers to joy, contentment, and peace -- not money, health, and fame. That contentment and joy comes only by accepting God's will for our lives and trusting that the things He places in our paths are there for a reason. Things in this life will not remain constant, and we cannot always live in "the good
ol' days", but God is constant and we always live in the God days.