The Ultimate Life by Jim Stovall

Author:Jim Stovall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Ultimate Gift, Jason Stevens, 12 Lessons
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: 2012-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

The next morning, as usual, I greeted the sunrise as it appeared through the window of my chambers. I located the DVD copy of the video Red Stevens had made for Jason labeled The Gift of Problems. I was thinking that the phrase “The Gift of Problems” seems to be ironic when Red Stevens began to speak.

“Jason, life is full of many contradictions. In fact, the longer you live, the more the reality of life will seem like one great paradox. But if you live long enough and search hard enough you will find a miraculous order to the confusion.

“All of the lessons I am trying to teach you as a part of The Ultimate Gift left through my will are generally learned as people go through their lives facing struggles and problems. Any challenge that does not defeat us ultimately strengthens us.

“One of the great errors in my life was sheltering so many people—including you—from life’s problems. Out of a misguided sense of concern for your well-being, I actually took away your ability to handle life’s problems by removing them from your environment.

“Unfortunately, human beings cannot live in a vacuum forever. A bird must struggle in order to emerge from the eggshell. A well-meaning person might crack open the egg, releasing the baby bird. This person might walk away feeling as though he has done the bird a wonderful service when, in fact, he has left the bird in a weakened condition and unable to deal with its environment. Instead of helping the bird, the person has, in fact, destroyed it. It is only a matter of time until something in the bird’s environment attacks it, and the bird has no ability to deal with what otherwise would be a manageable problem.

“If we are not allowed to deal with small problems, we will be destroyed by slightly larger ones. When we come to understand this fact, we live our lives not avoiding problems but welcoming them as challenges that will strengthen us so that we can be victorious in the future.”

I thought about the perspective of actually welcoming problems. I remembered many of the good things that had happened in my personal and professional life and had to admit they were each accompanied by a number of problems.

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