A boy in Decatur, Illinois, was deeply interested in photography. He answered an ad in a magazine, ordering a book on photography. The publisher made a mistake and sent him instead a book about magic and ventriloquism, and he began practicing the art of throwing his voice. He created a wooden dummy to whom, at one time, millions of people listened on Sunday evenings — Charlie McCarthy. Edgar Bergen had turned a mistake into a fabulous career. James Whistler, the renowned artist, wanted more than anything to be a soldier. He even entered West Point as a cadet. But he failed in a chemistry examination. Later he joked about the one wrong answer that had meant the difference between passing and failing. He said, “if silicon had been a gas, I would have been a major general instead of an artist.”

Commenting on these 2 examples, Eric Butterworth noted, “in your own frustrating experience you can and should take a good look at a bad break. There may well be in your frustration the means of making it fruitful!

See: Romans 8:28-32; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 1:12-14