It was the end of a long day. J went back to the new home he shared with 3 other guys. He thought, “What a great afternoon to sit out on the deck & enjoy my pipe.” The problem was he was out of pipe tobacco. Then he remembered the Safeway store a couple of miles down the street. It was a pretty spring day, why not go for it? Sounds just like a regular day, for a regular guy, right…It is anything but regular.

Now the back story.

J was a pioneer. Because of his “relentless-find-a way,” attitude he paved the way for the state to find funding that enabled men & women, like himself, with a developmental disability, to move out of the institutions into the community. After a few minutes with J, you would recognize him as one of the most positive thinking people you ever met. Throughout a conversation, you would repeatedly hear, “What if…?” I never heard J complain about his situation, feel sorry for himself, or use his disability as an excuse, never. This was not only J’s attribute but one I found in the hundreds of incredible people God used to shape my heart.

So, on this beautiful spring afternoon J drove his powerbase chair, using a head switch, to the store. Halfway on his journey he crossed a busy 4-lane street with no traffic signal and proceeded on. Now the street narrowed with no shoulders & very deep drainage ditches. One mistake would be tragic. But remember J is no ordinary man. J was about 2 blocks away from the store when the wheel of his wheelchair landed in a pothole. Now he is blocking rush-hour traffic. Unable to help himself, he waits for help. When the police came, they convinced J he did not have a license to drive on the street and would have to go home. The police found a volunteer with a pickup to carry J & his wheelchair home, and J gave them specific instructions on how to transport him to the pickup. (transporting J was complicated because of the many surgeries he had for cerebral palsy).

J came home in style, with a pickup ride and a 2-police car escort. When I went over the J’s home to find out what was going on he told me, “Robert, I just wanted to be a little independent.”

I have often thought of J and his pipe tobacco trip. All his life he had been told, “You can’t _____!” J did not dwell on what he could not do but chose to be a team builder. What he could not do physically, he found someone who could. When he ran out of his limited resources, he found someone with those resources. J saw things that could be! The police had told J that he could not drive his power-based wheelchair on the street because he did not have a license. A few weeks later J found someone to mount a motorcycle license plate on his chair. J was a “blue sky” thinker of what “could be.”

Lessons from J:

* Everything worthwhile will have obstacles and barriers. I must look past them to find a way the way and keep my eye on the prize and never give up.

God School Principle:

• John 16:33 – “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

* Complaining & making excuses is not only a waste of time, but it also creates negative consequences. There are people with enormous potential frozen in life by fear & not doing. They never leave the front porch of life. They allow their circumstances to dictate their life. Their focus moves from what could be to why it cannot be. J never said he could not do something because he was in a wheelchair, never…yet many able-bodied people sit in “mental wheelchairs” paralyzed by the fear.

God School Principle:

• Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without complaining and grumbling.”
• John 6:43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.”
• Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you;”

* Life is for living. J lived life, full out. Whatever “it” was there a way it could be done.

God School Principle:

• John 10:10 Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
• Matthew 19:26 “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
• 2 Chronicles 20:12 “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

When I repeat the words The Lord gave Paul, “I Press On…” from Philippians 3:12, I think of J.

Do you “Press on? With Christ help you can!