You know the distinctive and sonorous voice of James Earl Jones. When you hear the tag-line “This is CNN,” it is his unmistakable voice making it happen. Or perhaps you know his deep voice as Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies or as Mufasa in The Lion King. What you may not know is that James Earl Jones is a stutterer.
When he was a teenager in Michigan, Jones’ stutter was so bad that he hardly dared to speak. He was, of course, incredibly shy and withdrawn. Fulfilling an assignment at school, he wrote a poem that impressed his teacher. Yet the teacher — perhaps suspecting someone so shy and tongue-tied was not bright enough to write such a piece — decided he had probably plagiarized it. So the teacher challenged Jones to recite it from memory. Jones was scared at the thought of speaking before the class. But he later said he thought it better to be laughed at for stuttering than to be disgraced. As he quoted from memory, the words were steady, smooth and fluent. A career path opened for him.
If something is blocking your path to a holy life or worthy goal, ask God to give you the courage to keep moving forward. The Lord has an amazing way of clearing away obstacles for those who continue to press forward. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Your responsibility is to move ahead. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). The Lord has a purpose for everyone’s life, and we need to understand that it needs to be fulfilled, even in the face of adversity.
Kyle Campbell