More Than a Survivor

In 1940, Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely in Clarksville, Tennessee — the twentieth of twenty-two children. By age four, polio had paralyzed her left leg. Doctors told her mother, Blanche, that Wilma would never walk without a brace. But Blanche refused to accept that verdict. Twice a week, she drove ninety miles round trip to Meharry Medical College in Nashville for her daughter's physical therapy treatments.

By age twelve, Wilma shed the brace entirely. By sixteen, she competed at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, earning a bronze medal in the 4x100 relay. Then came September 1960, in Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Before eighty thousand spectators, the girl once told she would never walk unaided sprinted to gold in the 100 meters, gold in the 200 meters, and gold in the 4x100 relay — becoming the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. The Italian press named her La Gazzella Nera — The Black Gazelle.

Paul writes in Romans 8:37, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Notice the phrase — not merely conquerors, but more than conquerors. Wilma Rudolph didn't simply survive polio. She became the fastest woman on earth. That is the difference between conquering and being more than a conqueror. When God brings His people through suffering, He doesn't just return them to where they started. He carries them beyond what anyone — including themselves — thought possible. Whatever brace you're wearing today, the God who loves you is not finished with your story.