The Blessings of Perseverance

“Blessed is the man who perseveres” (James 1:12 NIV).

You probably have never heard of a man named Thomas Starzl? 

Thomas Starzl became interested in organ transplants as a surgery resident in medical school. In 1958 (the year before I was born), he sewed new livers into dogs whose livers had been removed, but all of them died within two days of the operation. A year later, he found a way to stabilize circulation, and the dogs lived for a week. 

In March 1963, he performed the first human liver transplant, but his patient bled to death. That failure, and the hepatitis epidemic that spread through artificial transplant centers worldwide during the 1960s, forced his liver transplant program to be abandoned. 

But Starzl refused to quit. 

In 1968, Starzl reported the results from new transplant trials. All seven children involved had survived, although four died within six months—an encouraging, but not stellar result. 

By 1975, only two liver transplant programs were left in the world. Twenty-three years after he first began, Starzl and his team found success: nineteen out of twenty-two patients lived for long periods.

And aren’t you glad he did. 

Today, liver transplants are routinely performed around the world and people who had no hope are now living happy and productive lives. So, whatever your assignment in life, 

“Stand firm. Let nothing move you.” 

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Cor. 15:58