So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What a statement!  Some of us lose it when the cable goes out! … Not you, but some people I heard about somewhere on the planet.  Paul went through, indescribable agony, but in his heart and mind, he had one thing that kept him… a WORD from the Lord!  He knew that he could not die until he went to Rome.  Paul was human.  I’m sure he felt how we would have felt in his position, but his trust was in the God of his salvation.  His encounter with Jesus on the road that day forever sealed in his mind his destiny.  He became a servant of the Living God.  This was a man who was looked upon as a great intellectual, upper class in his society.  He was well respected, revered and feared, but at one point he made the statement that:

“…Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…” {Philippians 3:8}

We will get to the other side… no matter what “beast” tries to attach itself to us or hinder us.  Shake it off.  Our mission will be accomplished.  Smash through every stumbling block, speak to every mountain, lay aside every weight until your purpose is fulfilled.  Some go through more than others.  That is why it is essential that we pray for one another and help each other.  

“…For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”
[Ecclesiastes 4:10]

What is a “successful” life?  In God’s eyes, it is finishing the task He gave us.  Together, with the help of our beautiful Savior, we will make it!