Mr. DeBlois lives in Randolph, MA; and Mr. Nash in Princeton here in New Jersey. They may never meet but they are both unusually gifted men. They've been recognized in their fields. They have also both overcome great challenges. I encourage you from their stories to face your own personal obstacles courageously. Worldly wisdom holds that some of us are born to greatness while others have greatness thrust upon us. I teach that every life comes into this world to bring blessing. Every life is hand crafted by a gracious Creator.
Tony DeBlois sings and plays 14 musical instruments. He has been playing the piano since age two. He can do 7000 songs from memory. He only has to hear a song once to add it to his repertoire. He is the recipient of numerous awards, like the Faith and Family Foundation first Outstanding Achievement Award and the coveted Reynolds Society Achievement Award (1996), John F. Nash, Jr. has received the 1994 Nobel Prize for what he claimed was his most trivial work. In his opinion his other work in mathematics as far more important. When he applied to Princeton his Carnegie Tech professor, R.J. Duffin, said simply: "This man is a genius".
If this was all you were told you'd conclude that life had been unfairly good to gifted people like these. Why should you and I struggle along while others sail to glory with carefree ease?
Tony is blind, autistic, and has Savant Syndrome. He weighed 1 lb. 3/4 oz. at birth. John spent two decades incapacitated by paranoid schizophrenia. Discover this about life: nobody has it easier. The greener grass "on the other side" also has to be mowed!
Life isn't luck. Nor is it about pointless suffering. A brave Biblical teaching to embrace is that of the purposeful life. Yesterday a friend mentioned a verse in Jeremiah the Old Testament prophet. He knew suffering. His very name means, "He cries" God told Him "before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I set you apart (for a particular purpose)" Those words are true for us all. The trouble is we don't embrace that truth.Winston Churchill once said about an opponent: "He occasionally stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened". Waste no more time. Find and execute God's mission for your existence.
You don't even have to embrace your life's purpose alone. God graciously sends people into our lives. We discover our purpose within community. Mr. DeBlois has a devoted mother who does so much to facilitate his musical genius. Mr. Nash is married to his wife Alicia, a physics major from M.I.T. where they met. She walked through the dark years of mental delusion with him. Brave women! God has people on your life path who can compliment your contribution to His plan. Welcome them for the old song says, "lonely is the man without love."
John Nash wrote: "Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at 66, would be able to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical."
The clock of life is only wound once or in a modern idiom you don't know how long the battery will last. Keep at what God created you to do. He made you to know Him. Start there. No other purpose is higher than a working love relationship with the Creator of the universe. He made you to bless others. That's your second priority. You can know meaning when you serve others. Whatever noble purpose your hand finds to do, do it consistently and with all your might. Fulfillment results. Gracefully surrender the things of youth. Put away childish things. Live to implement of God's plan for your life. You wonder what that is? Do the first two priorities I've just mentioned. You'll soon learn how your life counts for much.