Suppose you must face extra hard difficulties and problems. Are you then expected to practice enthusiasm? If so, how can you? Well, that is just the kind of situation in which enthusiasm comes into its own, when it really goes to work and produces big results. For enthusiasm builds power under difficulties—under all difficulties.
Let’s get down to cases. Let me tell you about a friend who had enough enthusiasm and faith and courage to lick two extra-sized difficulties—alcoholism and cancer.
His name is J. Arch Avary, Jr., and he is one of the best known and most highly regarded citizens of a large southern city. His story, for sheer courage, faith in the Lord and enthusiasm, can scarcely be matched. His difficulties were overcome by the power of enthusiasm, and it was an enthusiasm for something specific, namely, his faith in Jesus Christ and God. He is an example of the astonishing power that can be built under any difficulty.
Incidentally, I wrote to one of those professors who teach the “God is dead” theory and asked how he would explain the rehabilitation of Arch Avary on the basis of God being dead. He replied to the effect that God had nothing to do with this amazing comeback: Avary was rehabilitated by what this theological babe in the woods called “the caring community.” This was a grim joke. The community couldn’t have caredless. In fact, the “caring community” kicked the poor fellow in the teeth.
Mr. Avary granted me permission to use his dramatic personal story, saying: “Your other books helped me, and I should certainly want my experience to help others.”
Arch Avary, at twenty, was elected secretary of the Central Florida Institute of Banking and at twenty-one became its president—which I believe is still a record in United States banking circles. From then on his rise in banking was meteoric. At twenty-seven, he became an officer of the First National Bank of his city. In the Air Force during World War II, he rose quickly to rank of colonel. Back at First National again, regardless of his knowledge of banking and wide acquaintance in the industry, he was fired in 1956 for excessive drinking.
He Hit Bottom With a Bang
His decline was as rapid as his rise had been. He really hit bottom. His wife filed for divorce. He was broke. Each job, poorer than the last, had the same result. He was fired for being a drunk.
Arch describes his skid to the bottom thus: “Drawing blanks brought on my greatest fear. Spending much of my time at two social clubs and at their bars, I saw many influential people each day. When they would see me in the bank the day following a big night, and would mention a subject we had discussed, and about which I could not recall one thing, I would suffer a cold chill along with a great wave of fear. I didn’t know what I had said and what might result from it.
“As this experience repeated itself, and my nerves began to show strain, I required more liquor in order to calm down, and that produced more dire results. This went on for nearly ten years when I was in a senior position, very close personally ally and officially to the president of the then largest bank in the Southeast. The president was ‘retired’ early and in about a year he put a pistol in his mouth and ended his life. This should have sobered me, but it didn’t. About two years later I was ‘retired’ for the same reason.”
Those who knew the facts tell me that Avary, but for this weakness, would have become president of one of the greatest banks in the country. Instead, he was forced to walk the streets panhandling from friends and former associates; anyone who could spare a handout.
He knew he had to take himself in hand so he committed himself to a state institution for alcoholics and soon was wearing the uniform of an inmate. He was set to washing dishes, but apparently he was a failure at this too. After he had finished the first dishwashing chore, the woman in charge told him that her father was a trackworker on the same railroad of which he had been a director. She said, “Arch Avary, you have been a big banker, and a railroad director who went to West Point on the front of a locomotive with a special train. Fire sirens blew and flags were waving to celebrate the centennial of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad. But today you are a plain inmate of this institution and an ordinary drunkard like the rest. So get your hands back into that dishwater and get those dishes clean that you left in such awful condition.”
A Hobo Who Knew His Stuff
Arch was rocked by this experience, which had a therapeutic effect upon him. A few days later while the ex-banker and ex-railroad director was raking leaves on the institution grounds (another job which made him do some more basic thinking), he began talking with a fellow inmate, a hobo who confessed he had often “ridden the rods” on Avary’s railroad without benefit of ticket. The hobo, a thoughtful fellow, commented on Arch’s membership on the official board of the First Methodist Church. “Avary,” he said, “I like you a lot but I have been wondering. I have no religion. Don’t want any, and know very little about it. But I would like to know what kind of religion you have that would let you wind up in a place like this, same as I?”
“I didn’t sleep that night,” Avary declares, “and it dawned on me that if a professional tramp in a state institution for alcoholics believed my religion needed to be reexamined, it was high time I was doing the same thing. I saw that my so-called religion was only part of a pattern—like belonging to the Piedmont Driving Club, The Capital City and Breakfast Club, like wearing the gray flannel suit, the mark of a successful banker. Mine was no religion at all; it was a sham and it broke down, so I landed in a state institution for alcoholics.”
Avary resolved to find some real religion and he went all out to get it. “As I walked through those iron gates at Briarcliff, something walked out of there with me, stronger than man, because I have never since had the slightest desire to touch a drop of alcohol. And for a man who consumed over a fifth a day for over ten years, I submit that I do have a faith that has been made real and rewarding.
“When I walked under that iron arch over those massive gates,” Arch continues his story, “I stopped and looked back and asked the good Lord to give me strength and courage to straighten out my life. If He would do that, I would do my part in working at it and begin to pay off my debt by constructive service in the vineyard of the Master. I have been at it ever since. I asked the Lord for an opportunity to get my chaotic life straightened out. I had to take over the running of my life like I knew it should be run.
“When I left Briarcliff,” he continues, “I returned to my old hometown. I was broke, had very few friends, and didn’t deserve any. My wife was suing me for divorce. For the next six months, I stayed with my father and mother. I didn’t go anyplace except to church which was located next door to my home. I had a circuit that I walked every day which was about twelve miles. I would stop at the foot of Pine Mountain and sit in the old spring house from which I drank as a boy. I got me some cedar and white pine that I would whittle. As I sat there in the spring house whittling, I could hear the train whistles blow and I would think about that old hobo back at Briarcliff when he asked: ‘What sort of religion do you have?’”
He Stopped Running from Himself
“For the past twenty-five years I had been running from something, mostly from myself. You can’t run from anything, particularly yourself. As I sat there the first two or three days I was nervous and jittery, until all of a sudden a Bible verse came to my mind, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ My nervousness left me and I haven’t had it since. During those days of whittling at Pine Mountain, I made the greatest discovery of my life. I discovered a man named Arch Avary from whom I had been running for many years. When I really got to know him, I found out that basically he was a fairly decent person who had been on the wrong track for a long time.
“I did a lot of thinking and walking in those six months. Every day at Pine Mountain I conferred with myself for at least an hour. While I was wrestling with my chances to make a comeback and reestablish myself, I was indulging in a lot of soul-searching. I didn’t have much courage, but one day this verse from the Bible came to my mind, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ This gave me a lot of encouragement. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that with the help of the good Lord I could do anything I made up my mind to do. Another verse came to me, ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass,’ and this gave me a lot of encouragement.
“About ten years before this, my mother had given me two of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s books hoping these might bring me to my senses. I had never cracked them. But now I began to read Faith Is the Answer* and The Power of Positive Thinking. One day the thought occurred to me that if I really believe faith is the answer, I could take this philosophy and combine it with the power of positive thinking and make a package deal out of it. I tried it. It won!”
Well, one thing is sure, Arch Avary found faith; not a vague faith but a powerful life-changing faith in Jesus Christ. As he himself eloquently expresses it: “First and foremost my soul has been saved. I am blissfully happy.” I have known many enthusiastic Christians in my experience but no one more so than this man.
But this new-found faith, this happiness and life change which came to Mr. Avary were in for a formidable test. He moved back up the business ladder and in due course was once again one of the leading bankers of his city. Quite a feat when he had been told that the chances of his returning to the business life of his community was in the ratio of ten thousand to one, so badly had he wrecked his career. But now he was sober, keen, competent, once again outstanding in business and religious influence. He was asked to speak before all kinds of groups, telling them how God can change lives and free men from any defeat. His enthusiasm was boundless.
First Alcoholism Then Cancer
And then the blow came. He had cancer of the colon. Years before a friend of his had had a colostomy. Arch was so moved that he vowed if ever he came to this state, he would end his misery with a pistol. So this tragic news was expected to unnerve him; would he reach for the bottle again? That was an erroneous assumption, for now he had faith and spiritual power to hold him steady. He had a new enthusiasm that made a big difference. In fact, after being told of his cancer, he went to Sea Island to speak to a group of a thousand women bankers. At the convention, he attended several cocktail parties and was urged by some unthinking people to take something to “steady the shock” but he did not need anything beyond the new power within him.
“The fact that I had no desire for a drink under these circumstances convinced me that I was pretty well cured,” he observed. Indeed the astonishing thing is that he had so licked his problem, the problem being himself, that not only was he without fear, but he was also in firm control of his new tragedy as well. In fact, he turned his colostomy, which he defines as a “hole in the stomach” into an asset. He uses the daily irrigation time of an hour and a half for reading, study, prayer and meditation.
“When they removed the bandage from my stomach and put a plastic receptacle on it, I couldn’t look at it,” he said. “My doctor suggested that I change this receptacle instead of letting the nurses do it, because the sooner I got used to doing so the better off I would be. I balked for four or five days, but finally made up my mind that I had to live with this thing.
“When I made the decision to face my problem and look at that hole in my side and not let it scare me, I won one of the greatest victories of my life. Changing that receptacle one time changed me, and gave me confidence that opened a new vista of sunshine to an otherwise dark outlook—the courage to face unpleasant things.
“I decided I was going to live with this hole in my stomach and make it a blessing instead of a curse. I recalled preachers talking about Paul and his infirmities. I figured if the greatest man in Christendom next to Jesus Christ could use his infirmities and do what he did, that I could make mine an inspiration also and try to use it to the best advantage. I never had any idea that I was a Paul, but I did agree with what he wrote to the Philippians, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’
“I had read many times Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking. It was so helpful in my troubles with alcohol, I read it again and renewed my inspiration and determination to face again and master a difficult problem.”
Well, for several years now Arch Avary, ex-alcoholic, ex-panhandler, ex-cancer victim—now cancer victor—has been president of the state cancer society. He is an enthusiastic and compelling speaker and has saved hundreds of lives by persuading people to have examinations.
The Worst Trouble Comes to the Best Men
Eugene Patterson, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, says of Mr. Avary: “A man like that just might defeat anything. Maybe the worst trouble comes to the best men because they can handle it.”
What is your difficulty or problem? Whatever it is, you can handle it. Do as Avary did and get yourself some real faith. Go far beyond formal belief in God; really go into faith in depth. Out of it will come dynamic enthusiasm and you will have the same kind of strength, and gain the same fabulous victory. Never settle for any defeat. Stand up to your difficulty courageously with lots of faith, and let enthusiasm put power under it. With God’s help you can lick your difficulties and problems.
Put this one great fact in mind: God himself is on the side of the enthusiastic believer. That being true, how can you lose?
Consider, for example, the case of a man named Ed Furgol who became one of the greatest golfers in the history of this popular sport. When Ed was ten years old, he fell from a swing onto a concrete pavement, landing hard on his left elbow, which was driven up through the skin, projecting out of the arm. He was rushed to the hospital, where everything was done that could have been for the little boy. But he found himself with a left arm nearly ten inches shorter than the other. The traumatic effects of such an accident on a normal, vigorous ten-year-old boy might have been great indeed. But these were overcome by a vital power that had captured his mind: enthusiasm. His enthusiasm was for golf. He actually had a burning and consuming ambition to become U. S. Open Champion. But how pathetic, how utterly unrealistic can one get? Someone must gently remove such ideas from the mind of this poor kid with a hopelessly withered shortened arm. Thus people must have talked sadly. And, of course, the average, negative person would have folded completely in the presence of such a handicap.
But Ed Furgol was of a different breed. He had some immense assets working for him. When he added them up, they outbalanced in his mind that withered arm. And what were those assets? One was a goal, not a fuzzy vague sort of goal, which of course is not a goal at all; but a specific, clearly defined objective, to be a golf champion. Crippled arm or not, that was what he wanted, what he expected for sure. He believed in himself. He was convinced that with God’s help and his own efforts, painful though they surely would be, he could manage to put the golf ball where it was supposed to go. And he knew that anyone who could do that could become champion. Difficulties or no difficulties, he intended to be champion.
Don’t Be An If Thinker—Be a How Thinker
Ed had another asset, an important one. He was not an if thinker. He was a how thinker. The if thinker says: “If I hadn’t done that…If it had not happened to me…If only I’d had a better break”—one hopeless if after another. Well, this so-called handicapped boy bypassed all the ifs and emphasized the hows. He asked himself, How do I compensate for this short arm? How do I get my whole body into the shot? Yes, how do I become champion? All of which underscores the fact that Ed Furgol had the quality of enthusiasm which generates power under difficulty. Difficulty was what he had for fair, but his enthusiasm canceled out difficulty.
He had to compensate for his short arm by using his whole body in a golf shot. He had a kind of hacking motion as he went at the ball. But he brought the whole body into a flow so that its full weight hit the ball. Observers say that until one got used to it, Ed did look a bit pathetic playing alongside some of the most magnificent physical specimens in the United States. Here was this boy with a ten-inch differential in one arm trying to play big-time golf.
Before the big competition, he was awakened in the night, he tells us, by a voice which seemed to whisper in his ear, “Ed, tomorrow you will be the Open Golf champion.” The next day the how thinker, the handicapped lad with the enthusiasm that makes the difference, did become champion.
Reporters asked Ed to predict future champions, suggesting names. “No, he’ll never make it,” Ed said of the first person they suggested.
“Why will he never make it?”
“Because he hasn’t suffered enough.”
A second name was mentioned. Again, he shook his head, “No, he’ll never make it either.”
“Why not?” they asked.
“Because he’s never been hungry enough.”
Of a third, he said, “He won’t be champion ever, because he has never been defeated enough.”
It seemed that none of these golfers had enough trouble or experience or the enthusiasm that makes the difference. It takes struggle, a goal, and enthusiasm to make a champion.
Well what is your ten-inch-short arm? Maybe it is not a physical handicap but a weakness of mental attitude or a defect in your arm of faith. Most of us do not appreciate the power of faith in helping people be what God meant them to be, and what they want to be. By the power of God, anybody can be free from any weakness; anyone can be released to creative living, no matter what obstacle stands in his way.
To believe this is an essential qualification of the person who desires to move forward in this life. It is a fact that difficulty does help to make strong people, and happy ones, because in the long run no one can be either strong or happy or efficient who has not had rough spots knocked off by the refining process of living.
Enthusiasm and the Tumbling Barrel
Ever hear of a tumbling barrel? Well, I had not either, until Andrew van der Lyn, a friend in the manufacturing business, told me about it. Some ideas he got from tumbling barrels helped him to overcome difficulties so successfully that I became interested in his philosophy of relating difficulty to enthusiasm. A tumbling barrel is an industrial device for smoothing newly made pieces of metal. It is a cask or drum equipped to revolve at a predetermined speed. Into it are put steel castings or manufactured metal pieces. An abrasive such as powdered alumina or Carborundum, is put into the barrel; or maybe sand, rubber pellets or steel balls, depending upon the character and hardness of the metal parts. In some cases water is added.
The tumbling barrel is then rotated. With each revolution the metal pieces are carried part way up the side of the drum; then they fall free and drop back down. As they tumble and spill against each other and are rubbed by the abrasive, the burrs disappear and the rough edges are smoothed. They are then in shape to function properly.
This ingenious process strongly suggests the way men are tumbled about in life. We come into the world with burrs and edges characteristic of raw newness. But as we go along, we tumble against each other and also rub against hardships and difficulties. This affects us much as the abrasives in tumbling barrels affect new pieces of metal. Such friction and attrition make for a rounding and maturing of personalities.
There are well-meaning people who believe that life is too harsh. They are the ones who would like to plan and arrange the world so that no one need suffer. But without struggle, how could the end product of personality be achieved? How could a person become rounded and mature and strong?
When you realize that not only are trouble and suffering inevitable, but serve a definite creative purpose as well, you are upgrading your philosophy of human existence. You no longer waste time complaining or pitying yourself, getting resentful or giving in to discouragement. You gradually learn to take difficulties as part of the maturing process. So when the going gets tough, take the attitude that rough spots are being knocked off, that you are being shaped for the real purpose of your life.
This shaping process makes men. As tough and unpleasant as difficulty may be, it is the source of potential development. Surround every difficulty with prayer, with faith and with straight thinking. Then let enthusiasm build power under it. On this basis, you can handle any situation that can ever develop.
Airline Hostess Faces Death—But—
Let me tell you about a young woman who certainly did get shaken about in the tumbling barrel. But a long acquaintance with God developed such a sense of inner victory in her mind that even a terrifying experience could not overwhelm her.
Jackie Myers, airline hostess, did not foresee on that beautiful morning when she walked out to a huge jet on the runway that within moments she would face the greatest crisis of her life. For shortly after takeoff, Jackie suddenly found herself face-to-face with death. At what seemed certain to be her last moment a remarkable realization came to her; that she had such faith and enthusiasm for God that she could even meet death without fear.
“Eleven minutes after takeoff,” Miss Myers says, “our beautiful, huge, shiny jet went into a nosedive. We were 249,000 pounds of weight hurtling through space. We went into a dive at 19,000 feet and it wasn’t until 40 seconds later that the captain pulled us out of it at 5,000 feet—just 8 seconds before we would have crashed!
“As we pulled out of the dive, the No. 3 engine tore out of the wing and dropped to earth. No. 4 was hanging by a few bolts. We lost most of our hydraulic fluid and a lot of electrical power. Several other mechanical failures developed.
“But our captain landed that powerful plane at an Air Force field as gently as one would handle a newborn baby. Had eggs lined the runway, they would hardly have been damaged. It was truly the greatest miracle I shall ever experience.”
Jackie Myers tells of her feelings and thoughts in those agonizing forty seconds during which the plane was in a nosedive. It is said that a person can relive a large part of his life in a few seconds. Here is an instance of it.
“When we started to encounter turbulence, I ran to my jump seat in the tail of the plane. I was thrown off balance and grabbed onto a shelf when we nosed over. At first I just couldn’t believe it was happening. I knew our pilots were superbly skillful. I felt certain they would be able to pull us out of it.
“But the fact was unmistakable—we were smoothly and quietly plunging through space. I became very close to God when I accepted this. I felt no fear. I thought of a beloved aunt who always says a little prayer for me every night. I thought how happy I was to have been a small part of our church. I thought how strongly I had endorsed the power of positive thinking and the Golden Rule. At no time did I experience fear. I was so happy about my life including religion. I did tell God there were so many things I wanted to do yet. I wanted to stay just a little while longer. I said, ‘Lord, I never got my happy marriage and my happy family.’
“But we were still hurtling downward and I reluctantly terminated my conversation with God. I accepted the fact that we would be blown to bits upon impact. I added a little P.S. to God: ‘If this is the way You want it, Lord, I guess this is the way it’s going to be.’ Then suddenly the plane righted! I could hardly believe my senses but it was real. We were flying merrily along on a level.”
Later she said, “I found in this terrible experience that by positive thinking and right thinking from day to day, you can develop an inner condition that will sustain you through life’s worst ordeals and roughest moments.”
And that inner condition needed by everyone is a spiritually dynamic faith, and with it enthusiasm that builds power under difficulties. These change people so much that changed people change situations.
A businessman was having a hard time of it, and, in a dark mood, he told a friend that he was thinking of blowing his brains out.
“Why not blow your brains up rather than out?”
Startled, the depressed man asked, “What do you mean?”
“Get your brains blown up, full of enthusiasm,” the other replied.
He got the discouraged fellow to attend Marble Collegiate Church where he became reactivated spiritually. Result: this man now has power, the kind that comes from spiritualized enthusiasm. When he started blowing his brains up rather than out, he made the amazing discovery that there was real potential in his brain. With so many new constructive ideas, he has gone on to become an executive in his company. When in his case spiritualized enthusiasm took over, it drove out the depression that had nearly taken his life. But instead of losing his life, he found it. Difficulties no longer bothered him for he had the enthusiasm that built power under them.
The real secret of dealing with difficulties is a proper conditioning of the mind. Anyone can make his mind perform as desired by conditioning it to thoughts of faith, courage, enthusiasm and joy. I do not minimize the harsh, cruel, and extremely difficult experiences that people have. But if while depending on the help of God you really try to build a dynamic spirit of victory under your problems, you will gain a new power over them. Let me tell you of two people whose lives demonstrated this truth.
A woman, a brilliant individual, suffered a sudden stroke. She recovered about fifty percent of the use of her members. She was deeply depressed. But ultimately she returned to her job as school principal. During her illness, she asked, “Give me a few words to say that will help me to have courage.” I told her about Dr. Paul DuBois, the great Viennese psychotherapist who taught the therapy of words. He himself used to repeat the word indomitable. I also told her about the famous doctor who used the word acquiescence. I said that the word I like is imperturbable and that I repeat it often to myself. She wrote me, “I have a better word than any of those. It is the word rugged. She said, “I say it over to myself, rugged, rugged. Nothing can defeat me.”
But the greatest words of all to put into your mind are those of the Scriptures such as (1) “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (2) “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” (3) “If God be for us, who can be against us.” (4) “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
Next time you are faced with a difficulty, open the Great Book, pick out words like these, commit them to memory, repeat them until they take possession of your mind. Your mind will give you back exactly what you put into it. If over a long period, you put defeat into your mind, your mind will give you back defeat. If over a long period you put into your mind great words of faith, your mind will give them back to you.
A friend was in a hospital. He had had one leg amputated some years ago and recently the second leg was taken off. This man told me that he had the phantom foot. Though his foot was off he could still feel it and still wanted to move his toes. This could have produced a nervous and tense reaction. But this man was so happy, so enthusiastic that nothing defeated him. He was the life of the hospital.
I said to him, “Everyone tells me you are the happiest person in this hospital. You are not putting it on, are you?”
“No, no, I am as happy as can be.”
“Let me in on your secret,” I asked.
“Do you see that little book lying over there on the table?”
It was the Bible. He said, “There is where I get my medicine. When I feel a little low, I just read the Book and after I have read some of these great words I am happy again.”
A drunken man came into the hospital looking for a friend and staggered around the ward with a bunch of flowers. Finally he said, “I cannot find my friend, but if I find a happy man in this hospital, I am going to give him my flowers.”
The nurses were anxious to be rid of this unwelcome visitor, but they were afraid of him. They allowed him to go around peering into every room. He looked at each patient with a searching scrutiny and said, “I never saw such a gloomy bunch of people.” Then he came to this man with no legs, and he put his face up close to his and looked at him for a long while. Then his brain seemed to grow sober and he said, “You have sure got something my friend. You have got what I am looking for. You are a happy man and I am going to give you my flowers.”
*Faith Is the Answer by Norman Vincent Peale and Smiley Blanton, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950.