(If you’d rather watch or listen to an abbreviated version of this blog instead of reading it, you may do so via this link.
The story is told that the problem was first successfully dealt with when he was a third grader.
One day, his teacher came to young Jimmy and said in an excited voice, “I’ve got it! I figured it out. I know how you can tie your shoes.”
Mr. Clarkson had studied how to tie shoes with one hand all night and then taught Jimmy the method.
Encouraged since then, Jimmy has not felt any fear in doing things with one hand.
You see, Jimmy was born in September of 1967, just a little northwest of Detroit, Michigan, but without a right hand.
He had two parents who helped him believe, that despite what he may have lacked and obvious challenges he would face, Jimmy could learn to adapt and do pretty much anything he set his mind to.
Oh, they had tried a prosthetic limb at one point and even suggested that young Jim try participating in a sport like soccer where he could excel using mostly his feet, but as it turned out, Jim had a love and a talent for throwing things.
And throw things he did. Very well. In fact, he was a two-sport athlete at Flint Central High School in Michigan where he was a standout pitcher and quarterback.
The Toronto Blue Jays selected Jim Abbott in the 36th round in the 1985 Major League Baseball draft, but he did not sign with the Blue Jays.
Instead, Abbott enrolled at the University of Michigan and played college baseball for the Michigan Wolverines from 1985 to 1988, leading them to two Big Ten Conference championships.
In 1987, he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, becoming the first baseball player to win the award.
He was the flag-bearer for the United States at the 1987 Pan American Games, helping lead the US to a second-place finish.
Baseball was a demonstration sport in the 1988 Summer Olympics; Abbott pitched the final game, winning an unofficial gold medal for the United States.
Abbott was voted the Big Ten Athlete of the Year in 1988.
The California Angels selected Abbott in the first round, with the eighth overall pick of the 1988 Major League Baseball draft.
If you’re like me, you might be wondering, how in the world could he have succeeded?
In a few words; practice, perseverance and a belief that God had a unique plan and purpose for his life.
That God could use even a disability like being born without a right hand to inspire Jim and countless others who observed him to believe that He can do great things with broken or even missing things if/when we choose to persevere, never give up and find a way.
It had to have taken countless hours of trial and error, practice, massive amounts of patience and a ton of perseverance, but Jim Abbot found a way.
When preparing to pitch a baseball, Abbott would rest his glove on the end of his right forearm.
After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his hand into the glove, typically in plenty of time to field any balls that a two-handed pitcher would be able to field.
Then he would secure the glove between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out and remove the ball from it and throw out the runner at first or sometimes even generate a double play.
Opposing teams would try and bunt on the big leaguer, thinking he would not be able to overcome what they considered a disability. They, of course, underestimated his determination.
Jim Abbott ultimately completed a 10-season pro baseball career with a win-loss record of 87:108 and an earned run average of 4.25.
But through perseverance, he also struck out 888 of the batters he faced, and on September 4th, 1993, just a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday, Abbott threw a no-hitter against the then Cleveland Indians, a rare feat in baseball that he describes as the greatest highlight of his career.
Looking back on both his success and the challenges he faced, Jim Abbott is quoted as having said, “I truly believe that difficult times and disappointments can push us to find abilities and strengths we wouldn’t know existed without the experience of struggle.”
Born with only one hand, Jim Abbott faced his share of struggle. But a contrasting truth is that, in spite of what most of us would consider a shortcoming or deficiency, he was also able to achieve a great deal of success.
As believers, life in Christ involves a similar tension between two equal but contrasting truths.
Through faith in Jesus, inherently we know that we already have God’s full acceptance, so we can be fully confident in our salvation. And yet, we, too often struggle.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this in Philippians 3, verses 13-14:
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Like the apostle Paul, we recognize that our lives are not exactly as we might have them to be. We know we are not yet perfect. Yet we press on, working not for our salvation but as a result, in what Christ did for us.
Knowing, as we continue to faithfully press onward, the prize of eternal life with Christ Jesus will be fully ours.
The journey toward fulfilling our purpose is an ongoing process in this world; a process that requires perseverance.
Perseverance is defined as doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
In our singleness, there are all kinds of ways this might manifest throughout our daily lives.
Many of us in our singleness (or our being single again) have days or even seasons where the struggle is real and we have the tendency to wonder if things will ever get better.
So it’s a good idea to regularly remind ourselves, especially as believers in Christ Jesus, that our lives are not our own. Our salvation and our very being were bought at very high price. And our days in this world under Jesus should not be solely of our own creation.
We were made on purpose for a purpose. Our singleness is natural to our Heavenly Father as this is the way he views all of his children. Regardless of marital status or what we may be going through, God deals with each of us as individuals; every one as a precious, unique creation for whom He has a plan and a purpose.
We cannot allow past mistakes or setbacks or even what others might consider disabilities to deter us from continuing to pursue the things God puts before us and calls us to.
By leaning into and continuing to pursue and develop more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father, we can learn to persevere in the purpose He has laid out for each of us.
Because perseverance is also something that we’re not necessarily called to do on our own (Hebrews 10:19-25).
God has promised to walk with us (Philippians 1: 4-6) and He places people in our midst with whom we can both encourage and be encouraged by.
In faithful community, we support and encourage one another; trusting that He will see us through whatever comes our way.
It’s one of the reasons here at North Coast, we believe so strongly in Life Groups. These are our weekly small group ministries, designed to be places where you can develop meaningful relationships centered upon God’s Word. If you’d like to learn more, click on this link.
You and I were made to exist in community and together we can learn to persevere in our unique purposes.
If God can use a boy born without a right hand to learn to throw and field (and even bat) a baseball and then succeed at a professional level to inspire others, how might He use whatever you’re presently going through in your present stage of life to grow you and potentially use your story?
Keeping our eyes on the goals God has set before us, when we place our faith and trust in Him; then win, lose or learn, we can persevere.
It won’t always be easy. It may not even turn out exactly the way you think it should or how you would have planned it. But He promises it will always be worth it.
That’s persevering with purpose.
Keep pressing forward in those things God calls you to.
And know that I am (as are others) right here with you.
Terry