Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 93 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Hiking With a Limp (3)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 93 of our Trek. Today we will continue on our Trek as we consider what it means to hike with a limp.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On Sunday of this week, we were able to attend church with our daughter Elizabeth, her husband Nat, and their four children, along with Nat’s parents. It is always a blessing to spend time with family and worship together. After church we all went to Los Hermanos in St. Marys, West Virginia for lunch. The food was good, and we enjoyed our time.

After a lighter week of client work last week as we celebrated our 36th anniversary, it is back to a full schedule this week. We are also spending some focused effort on the woodwork in our dining room, getting ready to refinish it and the floor.

It is now time to break camp and continue on our exploration of the trails of life that help us to understand how best to hike with a limp. I love life, and each day I endeavor to make the choice to live it in a rich and satisfying way. I realize that some days are more difficult to do so. Sometimes the rough and rugged trails that we have to navigate are difficult enough in themselves, but if we have to deal with a limp, or something that impedes us, it becomes challenging to take that next step.

In order to set the stage for the exploration of our trails today, let’s look at someone else from the Bible that had to overcome obstacles to carry on.  In his 2nd letter to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul reveals a struggle that he had.

This can be found in Chapter 12 verses 7 through 10.

"Even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

We see that Paul made the choice to accept his weakness, and even take pleasure in it.

That brings us to Trail #5.

Trail #5 – You can choose.

While we don't generally choose to suffer, we can choose how we respond to it. Only in our co-operative surrender does God have the freedom to mold us in His likeness. We do not stand outside of our being created; there is a decision, a will, and a choice to be made.

If then we choose to be willing participants in the process that suffering takes us through, what can we discover? If we choose to expect to find God in the dark and desolate trails of our suffering, will we discover that hope and meaning is found in the midst of our suffering? How can we gain wisdom through suffering?

In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl would say this is possible and even essential for us to navigate periods of suffering well. He puts it this way, "The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life."

Frankl tells us just how vitally important our response to unavoidable suffering is when we choose to change ourselves when faced with su...