Paul told the Corinthians, ‘Therefore we do not lose heart…For our light affliction…is working for us’ (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NKJV). Jim Stovall proved this to be true. At age seventeen, his doctor told him he was losing his sight, and nothing could be done to reverse it. Rather than drop out of life, he pursued a college degree and also studied privately with a very successful entrepreneur. His goal was to be in business for himself, even if blind, so that he might manage his own career and life. Even though he had prepared himself for blindness, when the day came that he could no longer see, he felt devastated. In his book, You Don’t Have to Be Blind to See, he said, ‘All I wanted to do was sit in my living room and listen to music.’ But then Jim dug deep down in his faith and, as he said, ‘God opened my inner eyes to a new idea.’ He entered a highly unusual field for a blind person – television! He founded the Narrative Television Network to aid visually impaired people. NTN adds more ‘descriptive narration’ to soundtracks so that listeners might visualise a programme or film and enjoy it more fully. NTN broadcasts to over 20 million households, and amazingly, some 60 per cent of the audience can see. For his work, Jim received television’s highest honour, the Emmy Award, after only one season on the air! So the word for today is this: God can make your problem ‘work for you’ and ‘turn a curse into a blessing’.
