Midweek Inspiration...

I ran across a couple of things on Facebook this morning that I thought I'd share for anyone else who is needing some midweek inspiration...

God has been teaching me so much over the past few years about the purposes of suffering in our lives.  I've struggled a bit in the past few weeks with needing to "re-learn" some of those lessons (I've needed Mr. Tom around to say "RWYK!" Remember What You Know! ).  This Spurgeon quote, posted this morning on the "Spurgeon--Prince of Preachers" Facebook page, really hit home:




I don't know how I had missed hearing about this amazing pianist. I'm adding his story to
my collection of  those who face great adversity and are later thankful for it...
although sadly, from the further reading/listening  I've done on Leon Fleisher, he 
doesn't at any point indicate a trust in God or belief in God's sovereignty as 
the giver of all good things. The documentary "Two Hands" can be found through 
a Google search, but I'm not posting a link here due to a couple of instances of
inappropriate language (which I *really* wish weren't there, because otherwise,
it is quite good.) I loved this closing quote by Fleisher, after saying that he 
doesn't know that he would change anything, given the opportunity:

"There was a lot of despair, misery, and unhappiness, but there were commensurate ecstasies...and you 
can't really have, expect to have, one without the other."

It was quite sobering to see this from someone who appears to be an unbeliever,
when we as believers have such a hard time with it sometimes.  
And how much more should we "get it", when we know that all the

suffering and all the joys come to us from an all-loving God who is working it 
all for our good!

There are some great YouTube videos of Fleisher's playing, without the commentary
of the documentary. In this one, you can actually see that despite his two-hand 
"comeback", the little finger of his right hand still

doesn't work totally normally (which he explains near the end of the documentary). 
What a challenge to seehow hard he has worked to play with that hand despite its
disability.

Have you been inspired by something you've seen, heard, or read this week?  
I'd love to hear about it in the

comments!


P.S...I just noticed today's verse of the day from BibleGateway...it goes along with this
post perfectly. I love it when God puts things together like that!

“ Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” 

(James 1:2-3)