One time, I read about an eight-year-old boy who was born in Kansas in the early 1900's. During the winter, he and his brother would go to school early to light the fire in the classroom so that it would be warm when the rest of the students arrived.
But one morning, someone accidentally put gasoline in the kerosene container that he used to start the fire. When he lit the match, there was a huge explosion, and his brother was instantly killed. The teacher came running and found this little boy unconscious with severe burns.
She pulled him out of the fire thinking that he was dead. Somehow he had survived, but his legs were severely damaged. His mother was told that if he did make it, he would be crippled and would never be able to walk again. But this little boy was a fighter. Against all odds, he survived and made up his mind that he was not only going to walk again, but he told everyone that he would run again one day.
His favorite scripture was found in Isaiah 40, "They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint." As an eight-year-old boy, he had a spirit of faith. He believed that he could defy the odds.
Months later, he was sent home from the hospital with no feeling or movement in his legs. Every day, his mother would take him outside in his wheelchair so he could get some sunshine. One afternoon when she wasn't watching, he grabbed onto a nearby picket fence and pulled himself up. Stake by stake, he began to drag himself along. He did this day after day, teaching himself how to walk again.
Back then, they didn't have physical therapy for him to go to; he had to be his own physical therapist. Two years after the accident, he stood up for the first time. It wasn't long after that, he was not only walking; he began to run. He became extremely fast. On the track team in college, he won so many medals that he became known as the Kansas City Flyer. In 1934, Glenn Cunningham, the young man that was told he'd never walk again, broke the world record in the mile run.
Know today, you can go further than the experts have told you. God is saying, "This is a new day. You're a barrier breaker. I'm going to take you further than you've imagined. I'm going to help you set a new standard; you're going to defy the odds."