What adversities and challenges have weighed you down and yet you were able to overcome?

• Were you abandoned at the age of three?
• Beaten since you were five?
• Sold into slavery?
• Have you been homeless?

These trials make up the past of a South Korean young man, Sung Bong Choi. His story is one of the power of an indomitable will. Pushed down on every side, he sought solace through listening to music and in singing while working as a manual laborer. In this video clip from the 2011 Korea’s Got Talent show he stuns the judges with his premiere performance and story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ46Ot4_lLo

I don’t know what will happen to this young man now that he has achieved ‘success.’  Will he maintain his sense of humility and devote his life to helping others who suffered as he did? There are so many choices before him now.

I think it is rare that willpower alone would achieve such a transformation. I know there have been times in my life when willpower alone was simply not sufficient for the transformation I needed. God alone was able to raise me out of the depths of my situation. But then, our individual will, the ability to choose, is a valued gift of God. We are not the masters of our own destiny, but we can choose to follow the One who IS the master. And even if we choose to reject Him, He still gives us this precious gift of will to effect powerful change, for the good or bad. What choices will you make throughout today that allow you to rise above your struggles?

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Ephesians 6:10