Never Give up!

Often we give up way too early, and easily. Just like Joseph in the Bible, God has placed dreams within you that haven't come to fruition yet. I have a word of encouragement for you today. Never allow yourself to think it's too late! Never, ever give up!

Joel 2:28, "Your old men shall dream dreams."

Robert Lopatin thought it was too late. As a boy, he'd dreamed of becoming a doctor, but instead he graduated from college and went into his father's hardware business. Twenty-seven years later when his father sold out, Robert had the option of retiring.

But one day at a friend's wedding, he talked to a young medical school graduate, and suddenly he remembered his boyhood dream. It was still buried deep within him. So at 51, he decided to go back to school and become a doctor.

It took enormous commitment, but he did it. At 56 he graduated from Einstein College of Medicine, and now he serves at a medical centre in the Bronx. He loves it - even the 100-hour weeks and the graveyard shifts. He says, "I feel like I died and was born again."

Colonel Sanders had the construction of a new road put him out of business in 1967. He went to over 1,000 places trying to sell his chicken recipe before he found a buyer interested in his 11 herbs and spices. Seven years later, at the age of 75, Colonel Sanders sold his fried chicken company for a finger-lickin' $15 million!

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." He was expelled and refused admittance to Zurich Polytechnic School. The University of Bern turned down his Ph.D. dissertation as being irrelevant and fanciful.

The movie Star Wars was rejected by every movie studio in Hollywood before 20th-Century Fox finally produced it. It went on to be one of the largest grossing movies in film history.

When NFL running back Herschel Walker was in junior high school, he wanted to play football, but the coach told him he was too small. He advised young Herschel to go out for track instead. Never one to give up, he ignored the coach's advice and began an intensive training program to build himself up. Only a few years later, Herschel Walker won the Heisman trophy.

When General Douglas MacArthur applied for admission to West Point, he was turned down, not once but twice. But he tried a third time, was accepted and marched into the history books.

Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone with the Wind was turned down by more than twenty-five publishers.

Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway bestseller, spawning a blockbusting movie and highly successful television series.

In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, "You ain't goin' nowhere… son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." Elvis Presley went on to become the most popular singer in America.

Dr. Seuss' first children's book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected by twenty-seven publishers. The twenty-eighth publisher, Vanguard press, sold six million copies of the book.

Is there a dream in your heart? Has life buried it? Have others told you it's too late? Don't you believe it! Robert Lopatin became a doctor in his mid-50s. Grandma Moses took up painting at 75, and had a celebrated 26-year career as an artist. Noah started building the ark at 500!

Pursue your dream no matter how far-fetched it may seem, for your dreams are like your children - they're your offspring; they're the joy of your present, and the hope of your future. Protect them! Feed them! Encourage them to grow, for as long as you have a dream you'll never be old! Determine to never, ever give up! Keep your dream alive!

Blessings!

Pastor Rusty L. Blann