by Mike Riley<\/p>\n
The story is told of Italian violinist Niccol\u00f2 Paganini (1782-1840), who, as he played a challenging piece of music before a large audience, a string on his violin snapped – yet he continued to play, improvising beautifully. Then, without warning, two more strings broke, and he continued the composition playing with only one string.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/violin-300x199.jpg\")
When he completed the composition, the audience gave him a standing ovation. When the applause eventually stopped, he nodded at the conductor to begin the encore. The violinist smiled at the audience and shouted, “Paganini …. and one string!” Placing his instrument under his chin, he played again with that one string.<\/p>\n
With the above thoughts in mind, Coach Lou Holtz once said, “The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.” Supporting his conviction with Scripture, we can note the response of Paul and Silas as they sat in prison stocks. Instead of bemoaning their lot, they made use of the “one string” they had left – they prayed and sang praises to God (Acts 16:25). As a result of their godly influence, the jailer and his entire household were baptized into Christ (Acts 16:33).<\/p>\n
Are we allowing life’s adversities to discourage and immobilize us? With God’s help, let’s make the most of the “one string” we have left, and complete our spiritual composition (II Timothy 4:7; cf. Philippians 3:14; Hebrews 12:1).<\/p>\n
As long as we keep in tune with Christ, we can sing even when all is dark (Acts 16:19-25).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Mike Riley The story is told of Italian violinist Niccol\u00f2 Paganini (1782-1840), who, as he played a challenging piece of music before a large audience, a string on his violin snapped – yet he continued to play, improvising beautifully. Then, without warning, two more strings broke, and he continued the composition playing with only…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1844,1282,188],"class_list":["post-89375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-obstacles","tag-perseverance","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55365,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/blessed-are-the-peacemakers\/","url_meta":{"origin":89375,"position":0},"title":"Blessed Are the Peacemakers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Adapted from a lesson by Dorris B. Billingsley published in\u00a0The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 6, April 1952. Jesus began His great Sermon on the Mount by relating a number of characteristics that would be possessed by those who would be ready for His kingdom which was soon to come. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-need-a-proof-text-dont-we\/","url_meta":{"origin":89375,"position":1},"title":"We Need a Proof-text, Don’t We?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some may misuse a text, and if that text is not carefully examined, it becomes a \"proof-text\" that sounds, on the surface, to support the user's point, and that is not good because they have used the Bible to legitimize a point not made or implied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31185,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-hostilities-between-the-straight-alt-and-lgbtq-communities\/","url_meta":{"origin":89375,"position":2},"title":"Why are there hostilities between the straight, alt, and LGBTQ communities?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Maybe you've heard, maybe you haven't, but in somewhat recent news, the \"alt\" community (which is a community of emo, gothic, and other similar groups) and the LGBTQ (a group that represents what the letters stand for, but also peace, love, and tranquility) have become somewhat hostile toward Christians.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40846,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-shed-light-on-the-upcoming-four-blood-moons-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":89375,"position":3},"title":"Can you shed light on the upcoming four blood moons prophecy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my question. I've just recently turned my life over to Christ, and I am intentionally trying to read and study His word in the Bible, and I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40159,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-saying-people-dont-get-baptized-in-the-holy-spirit-anymore\/","url_meta":{"origin":89375,"position":4},"title":"Are you saying people don’t get baptized in the Holy Spirit anymore?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are you saying that people don't get baptized in the Holy Spirit anymore? If this is so, then what is it called when people are filled with the Holy Spirit? Like I have seen people get prayed for and they will shake and fall to the ground because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/free-agents\/","url_meta":{"origin":89375,"position":5},"title":"Free Agents","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ray Baker One of the many things the Scriptures teach with all surety is the free moral agency of men. The Lord did not create robots when He made us, nor did He fashion \u2018puppets on a string.\u2019 He made us creatures of choice, and His desire is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}