“Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power.”
I thought of this word by the playwright Noel Coward when I read the story of Wilma Rudolph. As a child she was diagnosed with infantile paralysis, losing use of her leg and forced to depend on leg braces for several years. Yet she became a world record-setting Olympian sprinter.
Referring to her situation, she said, “My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother. She made history in the 1960 Summer Olympic games when she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field competition. Her story was told in a recent edition of The Commercial Appeal.
Her witness as a black woman was powerful in those early 90s of racial strife. Her homecoming parade and banquet were the first integrated events in Clarksville, Tennessee where she was born. She had told Governor Buford Ellington she would not attend any event that was segregated.
Through the foundation founded, she established a nonprofit community sports program in Indianapolis for underserved youth. “I tell them” she said, “that the most important aspect is to be yourself and have confidence in yourself. I remind them the triumph can’t be had without the struggle.”
Her inspiring story has important lessons for us, no matter who or where we are. To have freedom in doing something one must be disciplined. An athlete who does not practice loses his ability to perform well in competition. A musician for whom refuses to rehearse soon has nothing to rehearse.
A second lesson is that discipline and keeping clear our purpose can clothe even a weak purpose with power. So, when we discipline ourselves, and keep clear our purpose, we claim power not available in any other way. Jesus gave a powerful witness to it: My meat, he said, is to do the will of Him that’s sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34) All along the way of life we must be able to say, THIS ONE I DO.