BUT occasionally all of us get bumps that we do not bump into. They
bump into us. They are the guideboard knocks that point us to the
higher pathway.

You were bumped yesterday or years ago. Maybe the wound has not yet
healed. Maybe you think it never will heal. You wondered why you
were bumped. Some of you in this audience are just now wondering
why.

You were doing right--doing just the best you knew how--and yet
some blow came crushing upon you and gave you cruel pain.

It broke your heart. You have had your heart broken. I have had my
heart broken more times than I care to talk about now. Your home
was darkened, your plans were wrecked, you thought you had nothing
more to live for.

I am like you. I have had more trouble than anybody else. I have
never known anyone who had not had more trouble than anyone else.

But I am discovering that life only gets good after we have been
killed a few times. Each death is a larger birth.

We all must learn, if we have not already learned, that these blows
are lessons in The College of Needful Knocks. They point upward to
a higher path than we have been traveling.

In other words, we are raw material. You know what raw material