During the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, there was one incident that got the cheers of the whole world. It occurred in the gymnastics event. One of the men from the Japanese squad broke his leg during one of his routine exercises. As it turned out, the last day brought his team against the Russian team to determine the best overall performers. Despite the fact that his leg was broken, the gymnast mounted the rings for a final performance. His routine was sparkling.

It was magnificent, and he had a look of pride on his face as he ran through the exercise. That look turned to anguish as he completed his exercise and from 10 feet in the air came hurling to the floor for his dismount, landing on his broken leg. But he did not give up; he remained indomitable because of a fighting spirit.

Success usually requires a great deal of hard work and determination.

The truth is, nothing worthwhile can be achieved without determination. In the words of Green Keliser, “People who have worked and attained things worth celebrating in this world have worked while others idled; have been determined when others gave up in despair.”

No man is immune from adversity or challenges. The fact that you have a good idea or that you are on the right course does not mean that you will not come against ominous circumstances. The beauty of life consists partly in confronting and conquering adversity.

Many have pushed through into greatness in spite of adversity. They simply refused to listen to their fears. Nothing anyone said or did could hold them back.

I believe Ted Engstrom founder of World Vision International was alluding to determination when he insightfully wrote: “Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes the Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he will never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham – the man who set the world’s one-mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T.  Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver.... Call him a slow learner, “retarded,” and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.”

This is just a part of an entire message. Read the rest of the chapter from the book...LIMITLESS  by Pastor Taiwo Odukoya