William Carey, the father of modern missions, spent years in India learning indigenous languages and translating the Bible in Sanskrit. But on March 11, 1812 he lost most of his literary work to a fire in his print shop. Carey had a wide collection of items he had personally written. The fire consumed ten different translations of the Bible, two grammar books, a large supply of dictionaries, deeds, and accounting books, and most unfortunately, his completed Sanskrit dictionary.

     After the fire, Carey was faced with the daunting task of reproducing his material. Instead of whining, he started writing. Line by line, page by page, book by book. Carey himself said of his work, “It is easier to walk a road the second time.” At the end of his ministry, William Carey had translated the Bible, either in whole or part, into forty-four different languages.

     Instead of getting down, Carey got up and did something about his unfortunate situation. Fred Smith said, “The energy needed to retreat might have been just the amount of energy to succeed.” What you have at the end of life will be determined by how you responded during and after the fiery trials of faith.