The great Irish tenor Ronan Tynan inspires audiences around the world with his abundant musical gifts. We admire his singing and performing, but just as impressive is his life story. Ronan was born with a lower-limb disability. Then, when he was 20 years old, both of his legs were amputated below the knee following a car accident. But that didn’t stop him. Determined to be an outstanding athlete, he won multiple gold medals in the Paralympics and set 14 world records. All the while he studied to become a physician and, for a decade, practiced medicine, specializing in sports injuries. Describing himself as “a late bloomer,”1 he didn’t start vocal training until his early 30s.
Certainly life didn’t turn out as Ronan had planned. It rarely does for any of us. What we achieve depends not so much on talent as tenacity, not so much on gifts as grit. Whatever our stories are, we all have challenges and setbacks. We all have opportunities to overcome difficulties, to go forward with faith, to choose to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones.
Ronan Tynan credits his parents with giving him the confidence to do what was in his heart. He says: “It all stems from the foundation . . . you’ve been given as a child. I was very lucky, I started out with two great people, a father and a mother who wanted the best for me.”2 He has lived by his mother’s counsel: “Put courage in your dreams, Ronan, and leave the rest to the Man Above, and then you will carve your footprints in the sand.”3
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, where he found work composing jingles and music for TV. One day in a hotel dining room, Noel saw a beautiful woman playing the piano. Although he spoke little English and she spoke no French, he introduced himself to Gloria Shayne. Within a month they married.
In the years that followed, the tensions of the Cold War grew, and Noel’s mind was often drawn back to the terrible days he had spent in combat. He wondered if the world would ever see peace.
a loved one, when hopes vanish or dreams dissolve, whenever hearts deeply ache, it takes more than willpower to keep going. It takes faith to believe that life has meaning beyond the present pain. It requires humble submission to a greater good and abiding trust that someday wrongs will be righted.
At first, when a loss shocks our souls, we may feel as if the wind were knocked out of us. We’re never quite the same, but we go on. In the course of time, the loss we endure starts to give newness to life. We notice the way a toddler giggles. We listen more intently to a bird’s song. The change of seasons comforts us. We remember details about our lives before the loss, and we cherish the memories.
In the classic novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, the strong-willed older sister Jo mourns the untimely death of her younger sister Beth. She consoles herself:
My great loss becomes my gain.
For the touch of grief will render
My wild nature more serene,
Give to life new aspirations—
A new trust in the unseen.[1]
Jo’s faith, having been tested, carves depth into her soul that was not realized until she lost her sister. She becomes more patient, more disciplined, more motivated to use her writing talent, more trusting in God’s will.
The same is true for us. When we have the courage to hold on to faith, pain and grief can give us wisdom and a greater capacity to love. They can bestow quiet confidence in divine purposes and a deeper appreciation for life.
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[1] (1932), 403.