When God's Path Isn't What You Expected

What happens when a promising athlete's Olympic dreams are suddenly derailed by a devastating medical condition? Jared Wallace's remarkable journey from elite runner to Paralympic champion offers a masterclass in resilience, faith, and discovering purpose through life's unexpected turns.
As you face your own unexpected challenges and redirections, ask yourself: are you willing to follow where God leads, even when the path looks nothing like what you expected? Your detour might just be your destiny.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with
Danny Mac.
I'm going to be here everyMonday to Friday to help you get
a great five-minute start toyour day.
So grab your cup of coffee, sitback, relax and let me help you
start your day.
Right Back in the spring of2006, a young man by the name of

(00:25):
Jared Wallace was one of thebest runners in the entire state
of Georgia.
He had won severalchampionships and was looking
forward to trying out for theAmerican Olympic team.
This was his goal to be anOlympian for the United States.
However, later that year hebegan to get some funny
reactions in his leg.
It began to not feel right andhe was eventually diagnosed with

(00:47):
what they call compartmentsyndrome, which is damage to the
muscle and nerves in the leg.
He went through severalsurgeries.
He had some problems with someinfections and some other issues
as these surgeries were beingdone and eventually, in 2010, he
was told that the only hope forhis leg was to amputate it.
So later that year he had his11th surgery to remove his leg.

(01:10):
They were able to save the kneejoint, but from just below the
knee down, his leg was removed.
Shortly afterwards he hadanother surgery to fit him for
his prosthetic leg.
Jared is a fighter.
He got knocked down, but sportshelped him get right back up
again and he soon realized hecould still run.
But now he was going to run inthe Paralympics.
He trained hard, worked hardand soon made his way to the

(01:35):
American Paralympic team.
He headed off to London in 2012as part of the 4x100 team.
On the day of the race, theyran very well and they finished
third, only to find out laterthat they'd been disqualified
because one of the runners hadstepped over the line during one
of the exchanges.
Jared was devastated.

(01:56):
Then that night, sittingfrustrated in his room, he asked
God what was his purpose behindall these trials?
He said God seemed to say to meI've given you an amazing story
.
When you go back home, I wantyou to share this story.
More people will be able torelate to a stumble than they
will a medal.
So Jared shared his story andhe kept running.

(02:19):
Since that time, jared has goneon to win many Olympic medals.
In fact, he has set a 200-meterworld record for Paralympics on
two different occasions.
Today, on the blade that nowserves as his lower leg, jared
has inscribed one short phrasethat tells it all On it.
He has written the words.
I run for him.

(02:41):
His faith is what's kept himgoing in the direction that he
knew God had called him to beand what God called him to do.
Many times we find ourselves inthe position where we have
sought out things that wethought were our plans and
something devastating happensthat keeps those plans from
being fulfilled.
We get disappointed, we getconfused and it can even get us

(03:01):
angry at God when things seem tofall apart around us.
But that old phrase of when Godcloses a door, he opens a
window Well, that's not takenout of the Bible.
It is a very true phrase,because God often allows those
disasters or those problems thatcome into our lives to shift us
to a place where we can refocuson what really is important,

(03:22):
what he really wants us to do,what he birthed inside of us,
what we wanted to do was in theright direction.
But God now lets those otherthings refine it.
He lets the problems help toclarify where we want to go and
what we want to do.
Very early in Jared's life hehad committed himself to Jesus
Christ.
He knew that he wanted to livethe way God wanted him to live,

(03:44):
and he thought that it was goingto be in running.
He believed that God had calledhim to be a runner.
But then those plans seemed tochange.
And then he realized thoseplans didn't change, they were
just modified a bit.
He decided he was going to run.
He knew that whatever he did,however, god was going to use
him.
He was going to do it the bestway he could that would bring
glory to God.

(04:13):
Psalm 143, verse 10, says Teachme to do your will, for you are
my God.
Let your good spirit lead me onlevel ground, jared.
Let God lead him in a newdirection and in doing so, he
was able to bring glory to Godand fulfill his dreams at the
same time.
So, my friends, as you arefacing challenges and things
that are changing around you,and things are not the way that
you thought they would be or theway you were expecting them to

(04:33):
go my challenge today is are youwilling to say Lord, teach me
to do your will.
Just show me what you want meto do and I will follow where
you lead me, because I knowthat's the best way that I can
go.
Have a great day, my friends.
We'll talk again tomorrow.
Thank you for listening todayand I invite you to join me

(04:59):
Monday to Friday, right here onStarting Right with Danny Mac.