All things work together for good
to them who love God 

     As a young boy, Mordecai Brown (1876-1948) caught his right hand in a feed chopper and lost most of his index finger. His injury was made worse by a fall that broke his two middle fingers and damaged his pinky finger. The broken fingers healed badly leaving him with a deformed hand. Dreaming of one day becoming a professional baseball player, he honed his pitching skills by throwing rocks at knotholes on the family barn. He became so good that in 1903 he began a 12 season major league baseball career as a pitcher. His crippled hand forced him to grip the ball in such a manner that the ball would spin and curve downward as it approached the batter. He used his crippling affliction to become one of the best curve sinker ball pitchers of his day. In 1949 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
     Just as Mordecai Brown found a way to make his affliction work for him, the God who "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph 3:20) will also cause "our... affliction... to ...work for us" (2Cor 4:17). He is "the God that does wonders" (Ps 77:14). He will use the things that we can't change to change us into a better person.