All Have Ability

There is a gold mine hidden in every life. Every man has success hidden away in his soul. No one else can find it but himself. What you have undeveloped, has no or little value. Put yourself into life. Study, drive yourself, and always remember that your worst enemy is inside of you. All men are not born on an equal pedestal, but no man is born without ability. God never created a failure. All failure is man-made as a result of man’s personal ambition to be self-independent. Everybody was created a masterpiece, as difficult as that may sound; a work of great, outstanding artistry, skill, or workmanship.

All have ability and there is no overdevelopment. It does not matter who you are or your circumstances. They have never made a handicap that could hold a man that had in him the yeast to rise.

Your excuse for failure is no longer tenable because many have come from nowhere and with all their issues, contributed significantly to the development of their communities and nations to the extent that they cannot be forgotten. Their mortal bodies may have long decayed and returned to dust but their names are forever written not only in letters of gold in the annals of history but also in the hearts of men where their precious names cannot perish or be corrupted by time.

Remember berries are crushed underfoot in the process of winemaking. This crushing process breaks the skin and starts to liberate the content of the berries.

What is in you can only be exposed for profiting through crushing circumstances and situations. Until the Alabaster flask is crushed or broken the expensive ointment is of no use to anybody, not even the critical Pharisees.

The true-life story of Eliza Edmunds Hewitt epitomizes this assertion. Eliza was born on this day, June 28, 1851, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Educated in the local school system, she graduated as valedictorian of the Girl’s Normal School that she attended. She became a teacher in the public schools of her city.

But then came misery. Her career screeched to a halt when she was forced to bed with a painful spinal problem. Her debilitating condition was caused by a reckless student striking her with a piece of slate. Lying in bed, she could have been bitter. Instead, she studied English literature and began to sing and write heavenly and timeless tunes from the bed of affliction.

We remember Eliza Hewitt today because of those hymns. Had she never been bedridden, she might not have written them. Among the best known are, “Give Me Thy Heart, Says the Father Above,” “When We All Get to Heaven”, “Will there be any Stars in My Crown?”.

There are few who have reached the top who had not been handicapped. Obstacles stand in the way of the man who climbs. The trouble with too many is that they want to get it too easily.

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

History does not remember us because we explained and justified our situation or challenges in life, anyone can do that. But we are remembered because the challenges and the situations had no power to devour our inner richness poured into us by the Creator and that we emptied ourselves through service, for the benefit of our generation and even generations yet unborn.

By Percy Agbeblewu.