When life does not go our way... it is so easy to make excuses, place blame on others, or argue that circumstances were against us. But we only progress in life to the extent that we take responsibility for our own actions and attitudes, and put forth the initiative necessary to create our own circumstances.

Stephen Covey

His name was Billy Anderson and he was all boy. He loved to run and play and go hunting and do all the things that red-blooded boys love to do. When he was in his early teens, something happened to Billy - a rare enzyme disorder that attacked his muscles and caused his nervous system to go haywire. At first he lost his coordination, then his stamina, then his ability to run and to jump. Finally, Billy lost his ability to even walk.

One day after worship, my parents invited Billy over for lunch. I remember pushing him up the stairs in his wheelchair to their front door. Billy looked at the bushes near their door and somewhat wistfully recalled how he used to jump over those bushes. Billy was not complaining - just remembering.

Billy Anderson always seemed to have a smile on his face.

Towards the end Billy had to be lifted in and out of my parents car and carried into the church building so that he could take part in the Sunday worship. You and I might have declared that we were too sick... to invalid... to much a victim of the unfair breaks of life to go to worship, but not Billy Anderson. Billy Anderson made no such excuses in life because, you must understand, Billy Anderson was a hero.

The last time Billy was carried into the worship, it was by six men - six men who were so very privileged to carry the body of a fallen hero. It's true that Billy was not a hero in war, or from rescuing some family from a burning building or some fair maiden from a raging river - though he was just the type of man that could have had his circumstances been different. Billy Anderson was a hero because he made the most of his circumstances in life, despite enormous obstacles. Billy Anderson was a hero by the way he lived his life.

There will be times that you and I feel like claiming our "excuse privilege" for our own tough breaks. Instead, may I suggest that we remember people like Billy and get back to the business of creating our own opportunities to shine for the Master.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

II Corinthians 4:16-17, NIV