The most ordinary person is visited with mystery, both natural and supernatural. Many pass by the supernatural by simply dropping off the concept of anything personal in the divine, or simply ignore its exploration. Others take it on, even if denial threatens them in the engagement. On the human side, the factor seems to visit many human beings, and becomes a gift or a curse as the individual may manage it. This becomes clear to readers of biography. How in the world could some of the experiences happen? Why do some persons manage the ups and downs, the occurrences and tensions, the insecurities and the rewards? The way to dreams, for many persons, is paved with barbed wire, high barriers, detoured routes. For others the way is smoother, seeming easier and the objectives fall into place. The reasons for the differences are sometimes found but for many will always be a mystery to success or defeat.
Early in his adult life Samuel Morse was reasonably successful as an artist. He introduced several ideas and paintings of significant evaluation. He was on his way, but several disappointments occurred that may have too heavily impacted him. His beloved wife died in childbirth. He later told their daughter of his feelings, after long bachelorhood following his wife’s death until a second marriage. He was turned down on some great projects, or overlooked. Although gaining reputation his finances barely met his limited needs. He went abroad, to hone his artistic talents even more, but returned home in the shadow of professional disregard. In his despair he toyed with an idea, and it gradually took shape. He had found a way to send messages by electrical pulses, and designed a code to interpret the pulses in words and figures. His exhibit of his invention was well received, visited by leaders of nations, extolled by American and French authorities, but passed over by the English. He was too embarrassed to make his financial needs known, but was able to get on, yearning to achieve, first as a painter then as an inventor. Disappointments and sensitivities almost did him in. Sustained by family members and a few friends, he pressed on. He felt jilted by his talent. Among his friends was a minister with whom he shared lodgings in Paris. The minister, well trained in the French language, assisted meaningfully to purpose. Daguerre (of daguerreotype fame that introduced photography) became Morse’s friend in Europe. They encouraged each other, but Daguerre’s personality carried him through the troughs of creativity. To shorten the story for our purposes, Morse ultimately succeeded, and the world was changed by his invention so to be able to talk across the world – for persons, governments, travel, to touch the society for good and development. Of his invention, Morse chose to send the words over the wire: What hath God wrought. He had felt sustained by God, in the mystery of his own nature and health. He lived to enjoy success in what he had done. In his heart, he was a painter. In his success in life, he was an inventor. He made it in both fields, but his timing was off a bit. More than a century after his death, a painting he could not sell for a few hundred dollars to cover immediate living expenses sold for $3.25 million. It was, in 1982, the most paid, for a work by an American artist. His story can be multiplied in millions of lives, perhaps not so great context as his, but just as meaningful to the persons passing through. Without family, friends, and faith, Morse would likely have succumbed to death or bitterness in losing what he was meant to be and do.
Scripture is replete with the stories of persons who missed what they could have been. They did not learn to face the vicissitudes of their lives with faith, prayer, fellowship, understanding, learning and the ranges of environment that fell to them. What happened to Cain, to Saul, to Absalom, to Kings and princes that followed? Where did Demas miss his way? Others almost lost it. Even prophets like Jonah missed the way to calling and satisfaction. Joseph in Egypt receiving his brothers with love, and father Jacob, is our example of an overcomer in the world with integrated life and forgiveness. John wrote about some persons in his short epistles, and in The Revelation to give us illustrations of some Christians failing life in the world. There are solutions, usually not hidden in our life mystery. Finding a fair portion of them makes all the difference in a victorious life of meaning for Christians. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020