Imagine waking up one day in a hospital and having no idea of where you are or how you got there. Imagine how confusing and disorienting that would be. You’re not sure if you should be thankful or scared. You hear the beeping of the monitor and the crackle of the intercom calling doctors “to Emergency Room B.” Your mind is foggy. You just can’t seem to clear your head.

On top of that you also don’t even seem to know who you are! Can you imagine the combination of panic and fear that you would be feeling? You wonder how that’s possible. Just yesterday you were…well, you’re not actually sure. What were you doing yesterday? Where were you? Why is this all so confusing? Now, you’re starting to get anxious.

To make it even worse, you realize that you can move your legs, but you can’t walk. And you can move your mouth, but you can’t talk! Can you even imagine how you would feel in a situation like that? You can feel the sheets and blankets against your skin, but you don’t feel like you can control your body very well. What the heck is going on? And you decide to give in and just lay back and try to relax. But your anxiety is only building.

Can you imagine how this happening to you would change your life in an instant!?!

Well, you don’t have to imagine, because we have with us today an incredibly determined overcomer who faced that very real situation. They overcame the tremendous challenges of that very situation and so much more.

Please welcome and give a standing ovation for…anyone who has been BORN.

You see, we have all experienced the situation I just described. We were born into a cold, confusing and apparently chaotic world. We were forced into a new reality, that if we’d had the choice we would have wanted to stay right where we were – even though it was getting pretty cramped in there – rather than enter this world. We were fine right where we were just as things were, thank you very much.

Yet, in our lives we’ve overcome obstacle after obstacle. We’ve handled challenge after challenge. We’ve dealt with new and unfamiliar situations time after time after time after time. And each one has made us better, stronger, smarter. (Well, okay, sometimes we mostly just felt…tired. But most times it made us better, stronger, smarter.)

Just think of what we’ve already accomplished so far in our lives. First, we learned how to eat. That was pretty important, wouldn’t you say? Didn’t have to worry about that one when we were on the inside. (Okay, we learned that after crying, but that one came naturally. So no points for us on that one.) We’ve also learned to communicate, even before we learned how to talk. That’s pretty cool. And that talking thing. Now that was a game-changer! We’re talking totally epic life-changer! And we handled it like a champ. No big deal.

Then there was that walking stage. Our parents were so proud…followed quickly by them saying, “What were we thinking?” as they realized they would now be chasing us throughout the house for the next 10 to 15 years.

And of course there was the whole potty training stage, we’ll just skip right past that. (Yet, imagine how different life would be if we hadn’t gotten past that one!)

Fast forward through learning to read and write…do math (sorta’…thank goodness some smart person invented the calculator!)…and learning to socialize and make friends. I have to admit, though, I still don’t really like it when other people play with my toys. So maybe I haven’t really earned my ‘sharing’ badge, yet. And there was the time we asked Becky to the high school prom (or you were ‘Becky’). That didn’t go so well, but we both survived.

We’ve learned geography and history (again, sorta’). Some of us learned to draw or paint…I’m more of a stick-person guy myself. For others, singing and learning how to play musical instruments. I would maybe have been okay if it only took like a weekend to learn how to play the piano really well. But some of you over-achievers have spent years becoming amazing musicians. Kudos to you, my friend!

We all got through several years of school…with a few ‘extracurricular’ activities along the way. (We don’t really need to tell our parents everything.) Most of us learned to drive…I’ll say with varying degrees of success. That one almost killed our parents, and took out a garbage can or two. Yet, we checked it off the list and proudly moved on.

Then we started that job thing…and finally began to ‘contributing to society’ after being a ‘taker’ for the first 15 or 20 years of our lives. Some smarty-pants told us it was part of growing up and becoming responsible. Many of us then conned, tricked or simply hoodwinked someone into marrying us. Boy, we were on top of our game that day, wouldn’t you say?

Then finally we started the whole process over again, for the next generation, by having children. And we now know all-too-well what they have to look forward to.

We have all accomplished amazing things in our lives. Some we absolutely nailed! Others it was more like skimping by (is that the right word?) with only passing grades. But we passed. We survived. We learned and got better (or at least older, and that works, too). Some experiences added some ‘bruises’, ‘dents’ or ‘scratches’. But that’s part of how the game works. Each day we wake up to a new adventure. No day ever seems to go exactly as planned. But no matter. We adapt. We handle it. We move on.

So, with this one, whatever the current drama is.., let’s act like we know what we’re doing. It’s not like we’re rookies at this. Let’s act like we’ve done this before. (Otherwise, we just look silly.) Let’s act like we know we can handle this one, too.

Don’t worry. You HAVE handled much worse than this. (I’m still amazed that we ever learn how to walk. Think about how complicated that really is. Balancing all of our weight on those two little wobbly pegs at the bottom of our bodies. Who even came up with that idea? Then moving all over the place and not falling down…most of the time anyway. And we do it like it’s no big deal. We can even do it when we’re not really awake or had a couple more than we should.)

So the next time something comes up – because it most certainly will – just remember this time, will be the most recent ‘last time’, you showed the world just how strong, capable, and amazing you really are!

Let’s get out there – as soon as they let us – and prove once again that we can overcome this challenge, too.

P.S. By ‘last time’ I mean the ‘most recent past’, not the ‘final’ time. If I had meant the ‘final time’ that would be morbid and a terrible way to end the story.

Oh, by ‘end of story’ I don’t mean…what I mean is, “you got this!”