Strive!

I want to tell you a story about a very sick boy. There were times when his lungs would constrict so much that he could barely breathe. Often, at night, his father would have to carry him as he struggled to catch his breath.

This boy was short, thin, and sickly. His weak body betrayed his strong mind.

Following doctors’ advice, his parents tried various treatments to help him. These included enemas, plunging him in cold baths, the consumption of whiskey and gin, smoking cigarettes, cigars, and marijuana. Drinking black coffee seemed to have had the best effect on him, but it was no cure.

During that time, asthma carried a stigma. Many in the Medical field believed it was psychosomatic. Some thought the boy used his condition to avoid activities or to seek attention, while others argued it stemmed from trauma. There were also those who believed it indicated a deep-seated resentment towards his parents.

Finally, shortly before his teenage years began, the boy’s dad sat him down. The father was his son’s hero and a very good and noble man. He told his son, “You have the mind; now you must build the body.”

Over the next few years, the boy worked hard to do just that. For many years, it was sheer drudgery. The journey was often arduous, involving various exercises, weight lifting, gymnastics, boxing, and endurance training. His body slowly began to take shape, although there were setbacks. Once, alone in a rural area, three boys his age approached and bullied him. It was a shock when he realized that despite his hard work thus far, he still could not defend himself. Yet he persevered.

At long last, as he transitioned into manhood, he had transformed his body. He stood five foot eight, average for his day, but he was now strong. He had become a very good boxer and wrestler. His lungs supported a body that demonstrated incredible energy and endurance. He could easily handle dozens of miles of hiking. He could ride a horse for forty hours straight. He chopped down large trees for pleasure. By the time he reached adulthood, his asthma had subsided. It would always be a part of him, but never to the extent it had been in his childhood.

Ironically, this frail, sickly child grew into the national embodiment of manhood.

He became a famous cowboy.

He became famous for leading his troops into the bullets of battle, winning a majestic victory.

Approaching age 60, he left civilization to map a river in South America that ultimately would bear his name.

We celebrated Presidents’ Day this week. I’d like you to remember these thoughts about my favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt. The sick boy who discovered ways to conquer life’s challenges. His words still inspire us today:*

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life. The life of toil and effort and strife…”

“Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral, or physical, within or without the nation … For it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.”

And from the lecture at one of the most famous universities in the world, Sorbonne, in Paris, France, words that Nelson Mandela, Lebron James, Miley Cyrus, and many others have carried on their person:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

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