Tag: purpose

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SARI BY DESIGN: BEAUTY… PURPOSE… HOPE

Ravi Zacharias shared a story about visiting a site known for making the highest quality wedding saris in the world. His account reminds me that God’s child can trust the Father for He has a plan for creating beauty and purpose from even heartache and sadness. Any hope perceived is based on the fact that God is trustworthy.

Ravi shared, “With such intricacy of detail I expected to see some elaborate system of machines that would boggle the mind in production. But this image could not have been further from the real scene. Each sari was made individually by a father and son team.

The father sat above the son on a platform surrounded by several spools of thread that he would gather into his fingers. The son had only one task. At a nod from his father he would move the shuttle from one side to the other and back again. This would then be repeated for hundreds of hours until a magnificent pattern began to emerge….

The son certainly had the easier task. He was only to move at the father’s nod. But making use of these efforts, the father was working to an intricate end. All along he had the design in his mind and was bringing the right threads together….

God alone can weave a pattern from the disparate threads of our lives – whether suffering, success, joy, or heartache – and fashion a magnificent design. Perhaps today if you will stop and reflect on it, you will see that the Father is seeking to weave a beautiful tapestry in your life.”

I gain hope from Ravi’s account. It reminds me that Father God is the Master Designer. It challenges me to trust my Father enough to follow His leading. Then He will accomplish a work of beauty and purpose with my life. That truly gives me reason to be hopeful!

“For we know all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8: 28)

“Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.”  (Psalm 142: 8)

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HUNTER WOODHALL: HOPE TO INSPIRE

  1. According to Arkansas’ KATV News, there’s a men’s track & field coach who admits his “mind is blown.” This describes Coach Chris Bucknam’s reaction to a sophomore sprinter for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Maybe it’s not that unusual for a coach to be impressed by or even awed by an extraordinary athlete. While Hunter Woodhall is an extraordinary athlete, he’s clearly an unusual one. Woodhall is an athlete who happens to be the first double amputee to earn an NCAA Division I scholarship in track and field.

Woodhall explains a greater purpose than winning races, “This whole journey and this whole reason I’m in college is to show people what’s possible.”

I believe what’s possible in his life will bring inspiration and hope to many — from athletic hopefuls to amputees needing a dose of hope and lots of folks in between.

As a two-time Paralympic medalist, Woodhall achieved first team all-American honors at the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Outdoor Championships last spring while competing with traditional (non-amputee) runners. He already has earned a first place finish and has reached his own personal best indoors this winter.

He has earned such athletic success despite being a double amputee. Both his legs were amputated below the knee when he was a baby due to underdeveloped fibula (from knee to ankle).

Woodhall wisely claims, “No matter what situation you’re born with, no matter what situation you’re in in life, you’re the only one that can stop yourself from accomplishing your goals.”

He competed in several sports including skiing, soccer, and football before committing to track. Woodhall explained, “When I got my first pair of running legs, it’s just like this feeling of freedom. It’s hard to explain.”

When he chose to start sprinting in high school, there were doubters about his potential to win.

He admitted, “It was just people being content that I was showing up. ‘The kid without legs was running,’ and I would kind of get the sympathy clap.”

Doubters soon witnessed this unusual runner surpassing all expectations to win. Spectators watched him run and win! They watched him run faster and faster to win again and again! They watched as Woodhall ran to become state champion and as he kept running to become a state superstar.

There seemed to be no stopping him, so next he wanted to run in college competitions, however he needed scholarship offers. University of Arkansas happened to be “one of only a handful of power programs bold enough to recruit him.”

Woodhall understood, “It was really just a lack of knowledge of the situation. No one without legs has ever ran division one.”

Coach Bucknam noted his speed, of course, but he perceived that Woodhall had more to offer than speed alone. In addition were his mental fortitude and confidence.

Bucknam explained, “You gotta take some risks anyways if you want to be good, right? We were willing to take a risk with him.”

Woodhall liked what he saw at U of A and decided, “From my visit, being on campus, just the whole entire experience showed me this is the place I need to be. These people are going to fight for you.”

Bucknam admired not only Woodhall’s speed but also his boldness to compete in the SEC (Southeast Conference).

Woodhall recognized, “If you want to be the best, you gotta go to where the people are the best. You gotta beat the best,”

NCAA granted Woodhall special permission from the NCAA (think waiver) to compete with traditional runners. He struggled during his freshman season last winter, but this season is bringing improvement.

“He’s an NCAA all-American, and we just know the sky is the limit now,” Bucknam commented.

Striving to reach or exceed that limit seems to be something Woodhall is motivated to do for others. “If there’s somebody in the stands that maybe doesn’t believe in themselves or for whatever reason if they can see me run or whatever else I do, if I can inspire them to say, ‘you know what, let me go do something,’ that’s special to me…. That means more than times, medals, places, anything like that.”

Woodhall’s amazing attitude is full of hope… hope to run… hope to win… hope to inspire…. He’s an example to others who need hope to get in life’s race and maybe even dream of winning their own races. I think Hunter Woodhall is a champion worth cheering on — both on the track and in life.

(Quotes of Hunter Woodhall and Coach Chris Bucknam are from KATV News)

As I share Hunter Woodhall’s story I am reminded of the following verses that inspire me. “…let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1, 2)

I am proud of Hunter’s amazing attitude as well as his athletic success. He definitely has potential to be an even greater sports star, and I anticipate seeing his star shine brighter before dimming. My prayer for him is that he will succeed not in races but more importantly in life. To me that means he’ll finish well by obtaining the reward that God has for him at the end of life’s race.

In the meantime I’ll be cheering him on. Run, Hunter, run!

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ZIG ZIGLAR: HOPE to FULFIL OUR PURPOSE

For all of us living on this planet it seems that pain is inevitable. Have you considered that it may help us fulfill our purpose in life? Zig Ziglar shared some wisdom that I’ve included below. If we adjust our responses to the pain we have endured, then we may learn to say thank you. That may allow us to find hope to fulfill our purpose in life.

“Outside of your relationship with God, the most important relationship you can have is with yourself. I don’t mean that we are to spend all our time focused on me, me, me to the exclusion of others. Instead I mean that we must be healthy internally — emotionally and spiritually — in order to create healthy relationships with others.

Motivational pep talks and techniques for achieving success are useless if a person is weighed down by guilt, shame, depression, rejection, bitterness, or crushed self-esteem. Countless marriages land on the rocks of divorce, because unhealthy people marry thinking that marriage or their spouse will make them whole. Wrong. If you’re not a healthy single person you won’t be a healthy married person.

Part of God’s purpose for every human life is wholeness and health. I love the words of Jesus in John 10:10: ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’ God knows we are the walking wounded in this world, and He wants the opportunity to remove everything that limits us and heal every wound from which we suffer.

Some wonder why God doesn’t just ‘fix’ us automatically, so we can get on with life. It’s because He wants our wounds to be our tutors to lead us to Him. Pain is a wonderful motivator and teacher!

When the great Russian intellectual Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was released from the horrible Siberian work camp to which he was sent by Joseph Stalin, he said, ‘Thank you, prison!’ It was the pain and suffering he endured that caused his eyes to be opened to the reality of the God of his childhood, to embrace his God anew in a personal way.

When we are able to say thank you to the pain we have endured, we know we are ready to fulfill our purpose in life. When we resist the pain life brings us, all of our energy goes into resistance, and we have none left for the pursuit of our purpose. It is the better part of wisdom to let pain do its work and shape us as it will. We will be wiser, deeper, and more productive in the long run.

There is a great promise in the New Testament that says God comes to us to comfort us, so we can turn around and comfort those who are hurting with the comfort we have received from Him (see 2 Corinthians 1: 3–4). Make yourself available to God and to those who suffer. A large part of our own healing comes when we reach out with compassion to others.”

(Exerpt from Zig Ziglar’s book, Better Than Good: Creating a Life You Can’t Wait to Live)