Have you ever been hit with something so unexpected… you immediately started praying for it to go away?
Not a small thing. Not an inconvenience. Something that felt like it changed everything.
I’ve been there.
Twenty six years ago I was sitting in my bedroom, overwhelmed by a three and a half year agony of anger and sadness… praying for blindness to go away.
Praying for a different story for my son. A different outcome. A different life, or rather, the life I was supposed to have had.
And then Michael bounced in. He was three and a half years old and full of the most incredible joy.
With extraordinary energy he said:
“Mommy… isn’t this the best day ever?”
I was stunned. In that moment, that very instant, I saw things crystal clear – I saw something I couldn’t unsee:
He wasn’t waiting for life to change to feel joy. He was already living it. Every single moment of every single day.
I shared all the details of that moment in my TEDx talk, not because I was proud of it (I was so not) but because it was my massive turning point.
Not gradual. Instant. My prayer didn’t evolve. It flipped.
From:
“Please take this away.”
To:
“Use this. Use me.”
And that’s when everything changed. Not the circumstances. Not the challenges. And honestly, there was still so much hard ahead.
But I changed. And that change gave me the strength to walk through everything that came next.
Because I stopped fighting the old story of blindness… And started trusting there was something bigger being written.
Holy Thursday brings us back to that same kind of moment.
Jesus didn’t want the path in front of Him. He asked for another way.
But then He said the words that change everything:
“Thy will be done.”
That’s the moment when purpose begins. Not when life gets easier, but when we align with something greater than ourselves.
If you’re in a hard place right now…
If you’re praying for things to look different… to be different…
I get it.
I’ve been there.
But maybe the question isn’t:
“How do I change this?”
Maybe it’s:
“What could this become?”
Because sometimes… the moment you stop asking for a different life is the moment your real story begins.
And that’s how Thrivers are made.
Kristin Smedley is a former elementary teacher turned author and advocate for the blind and disability community. She’s the mom of three children—two of whom were born blind—and all are thriving. To bring Kristin to your classroom, organization, or conference for an in-person or virtual experience, contact ThrivingBlind@gmail.com.
