Recently someone shared with me the story of a concert that Itzhak Perlman once gave at the Lincoln Center in New York City. As many of you know, Perlman is an incredibly gifted musician and a world renowned violinist. However, during this performance, a near catastrophe took place. Just a few bars into the opening number, one of the strings on Perlman’s violin broke. It was such a loud snap that the entire audience immediately realized what had occurred, and they all expected the concert to stop so that he could be brought another violin.

Instead Perlman closed his eyes, waited a moment, and then signaled to the conductor that he wished to continue. Understandably, the orchestra was somewhat apprehensive. After all, everyone knows that you cannot perform a major symphonic work with just three strings!

You know that, and I know that … but on this particular evening, Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. Indeed, he seemed to play with a renewed passion and energy. One could actually see him modulating the chords and recomposing the piece as he went.

When he had finished, he received a standing ovation—not only from the audience, but from the orchestra as well. Perlman smiled, and then raised his bow to quiet everyone. “Sometimes it is the artist’s task,” he explained, “to see how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

As I am often fond of saying, “That will preach!”

We don’t always have control over the things that take place in our lives, but we do have control over how we respond to them. As the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, we persevere because we know that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.”