"Change your focus, change your life" wrote Anthony Fernando to his readers on June 19, 2008. He illustrated the truth of his challenge by the life of Sarah, a gifted dancer. From the age of three, her world revolved around ballet and she wanted nothing more from life than to dance each and every day.
As she grew older Sarah received numerous ballet awards and when she was fourteen she was awarded a prestigious scholarship to study at the National College of the Arts. Sarah continued to work hard at her dancing. Her teachers recognized both her talent and her work ethic and encouraged her to audition for the Australian Ballet.Three days before her audition, Sarah was involved in a car accident and broke her ankle. While the hospital classified this as a ‘minor injury’, for Sarah it was a life changing incident. Although her ankle healed, she found that she no longer had the extension required to be an elite dancer. In the blink of an eye her life long dream of dancing with the Australian Ballet was over. Sarah became very depressed and all she could think about was how unfair life was. For two long and miserable years Sarah was lost in a personal world of anger and disappointment.
Then one day she found encouragement from a friend, who helped her realized that by spending all her time thinking about what she could no longer do she had been making herself miserable. With a new outlook on life, Sarah made a change and began focusing instead on what she could do. While she could no longer be a professional ballerina, she was still a talented dancer. Anthony Fernando reports that Sarah began to persue contemporary, jazz, and swing dancing and to her delight she discovered that her years of classical training meant that she picked things up very quickly. She also discovered a passion for teaching and over time, Sarah’s life was once again filled with the joy of music and dancing.
A fellow pastor of mine told me about visiting an elderly member of his church who had suffered a stroke. Once when he was visiting her after long weeks of therapy he reported that he said to her, "I am so sorry that through this stroke you lost so much of your ability to function. It must be hard on you to think of all the things you no longer can do." To this she smiled and said, "Pastor, at first I focused on the things I could no longer do. I became depressed as I counted over ninety things I can no longer do, but I was encouraged when I read in the Scriptures, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' That verse changed by point of view. I began to focus on what I can still do. There are hundreds of things I can still do. That is why you see a smile on my face and a gleam in my eyes."
Curtis is a retired United Methodist pastor who lives on Sand Mountain. You can his read inspiring stories in his book, "Into All The World" which you can buy at CVS Pharmacy in downtown Trenton, GA.
As she grew older Sarah received numerous ballet awards and when she was fourteen she was awarded a prestigious scholarship to study at the National College of the Arts. Sarah continued to work hard at her dancing. Her teachers recognized both her talent and her work ethic and encouraged her to audition for the Australian Ballet.Three days before her audition, Sarah was involved in a car accident and broke her ankle. While the hospital classified this as a ‘minor injury’, for Sarah it was a life changing incident. Although her ankle healed, she found that she no longer had the extension required to be an elite dancer. In the blink of an eye her life long dream of dancing with the Australian Ballet was over. Sarah became very depressed and all she could think about was how unfair life was. For two long and miserable years Sarah was lost in a personal world of anger and disappointment.
Then one day she found encouragement from a friend, who helped her realized that by spending all her time thinking about what she could no longer do she had been making herself miserable. With a new outlook on life, Sarah made a change and began focusing instead on what she could do. While she could no longer be a professional ballerina, she was still a talented dancer. Anthony Fernando reports that Sarah began to persue contemporary, jazz, and swing dancing and to her delight she discovered that her years of classical training meant that she picked things up very quickly. She also discovered a passion for teaching and over time, Sarah’s life was once again filled with the joy of music and dancing.
A fellow pastor of mine told me about visiting an elderly member of his church who had suffered a stroke. Once when he was visiting her after long weeks of therapy he reported that he said to her, "I am so sorry that through this stroke you lost so much of your ability to function. It must be hard on you to think of all the things you no longer can do." To this she smiled and said, "Pastor, at first I focused on the things I could no longer do. I became depressed as I counted over ninety things I can no longer do, but I was encouraged when I read in the Scriptures, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' That verse changed by point of view. I began to focus on what I can still do. There are hundreds of things I can still do. That is why you see a smile on my face and a gleam in my eyes."
Curtis is a retired United Methodist pastor who lives on Sand Mountain. You can his read inspiring stories in his book, "Into All The World" which you can buy at CVS Pharmacy in downtown Trenton, GA.
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