“You’ll never make anything of yourself in the hotel business. It takes a special gift and you haven’t got it.”
Judgement and Purpose
That was the cutting judgment from the boss of sixteen-year-old wine steward apprentice named Cesar. But Cesar tried again and again to succeed in the hotel business. Additionally, again and again he was fired from those jobs. Certainly, these subsequent failures confirmed the judgment of his original boss. He would never amount to anything in the hotel business, right?
No. That judgment was consummately wrong. For this young failure was Cesar Ritz, the Swiss hotelier who built an empire of fabulously successful luxury hotels and restaurants. These included the gold-standard of luxury hotels, the Hotel Ritz in Paris and the Ritz-Carlton in London. Cesar Ritz became the “king of hoteliers.”
This story has been repeated numerous times in human history. Perhaps many of us have experienced the premature condemnation from a significant other in our lives. In addition, maybe that judgment even came from parents who expected us to amount to nothing. When this happens we all need to remind ourselves that the all-wise God made no mistakes when He put us on this planet. He didn’t goof when He knit us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). Perhaps our parents had no plan for us, but God certainly does. “All the days ordained for me were already written in Your book before one of them came to be,” wrote David in Psalm 139:16.
Hope in Tragedy
Recently, someone shared with me one of the most dramatic stories of parental miscalculation. It involves the story of a newborn baby that was discarded by his mother in a dumpster. In the eyes of his mom – a drug-addicted prostitute, his life wasn’t worth the effort. After a day in the dumpster, the crying child was discovered and saved from certain death. Nathan and Betty Figgers became the baby boy’s foster parents. In addition, they soon adopted the boy, naming him Freddie, and invested all their love and resources into him.
Overall, it paid off in many ways. For little Freddie was a computer and electronics genius. Additionally, he went on to make numerous inventions and applications of wireless technology to healthcare. His adoptive father became a beneficiary of this when he began to be ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease. Freddie developed a wireless tracking device that fit in his father’s shoe which kept him from becoming lost. Freddie did so well for himself that, by 2017 he owned a business, Figger’s Wireless, that was worth $62 million. When his biological mother had no plan for him, God always did and certainly always will.
Eternal Purpose
Of course, every time an abortion takes place, a parent has passed judgment on their child. They’ve determined that their child isn’t worth living – the child which God Himself has knit together in their mom’s womb and whose life story He has already written. Additionally, the scale of this human tragedy – abortion, the leading cause of death among humans – constitutes a sin too grave to comprehend. People cannot support abortion without sacrificing something of their sanity, their humanity, and their soul.
Never lose hope for yourself or for others – especially the children God has placed in your care. Maybe you cannot see hope for yourself or them. But God has a plan, a plan for good and not for evil, a plan to give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
PRAYER
Dear Father in heaven, please open my eyes to see my own worth and potential for goodness and greatness – as well as that of others. Remind me, O God, that You – who see the future as vividly as the present – have a bright and wonderful plan for my life and for the lives of all humanity. Help me to see that You made no mistake when You placed us upon this planet. Amen.
Photos:
–https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/6904715404/ (By U.S. Army, Licensed under CC by 2.0)
–https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/6198162188/ (By U.S. Army, Licensed under CC by 2.0)
–https://www.flickr.com/photos/marine_corps/8079693545/ (By Marines, Licensed under US Govt Work)
(Information from: Reader’s Digest Stories Behind Everyday Things, 1980, Pleasant Hills, NY, p. 175; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Ritz; https://www.lightworkers.com/baby-found-in-dumpster-grows-up-to-be-tech-ceo-worth-62-million/?fbclid=IwAR0nTLrJrmCkHwYm4CcTTPqoYsv9OZzYktdN_44ICSQRIhgvkoIloKKIW-U)
