Where is God’s Perfection – The Story of Shaya

Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Power of Intention

Many years ago I read this very story in an email chain letter that was doing the rounds – I remember the first time that I read the story it was a real tear jerker, I had a big lump in my throat and walked away really appreciated the fact that my life was pretty dam good. I also walked away with the kindness and loving streak with in me brimming at its core. These types of stories just show you how a little kindness towards others can often just take a very small act on your behalf but in turn may have an almighty impact on others.

The reason why I included the video above by Dr Wayne Dyer is because recently I was reading Dr Dyers book and audiobook entitled “The Secrets of Power of Intention“. OMG this book for me has been a complete game changer, it has opened my eyes up about what is truly involved in leading a purposeful and meaningful life.

The Power of Intention by Dr Wayne Dyer has had such a major influence on me that it deserves to be discussed and analysed in far greater detail which is exactly what will be done.

But for the purpose of this blog post I recently reconnected with the Story of Shaya “Where is God’s Perfection” which is written about in The Power of Intention and this was the reason for talking about this story and publishing it here at the Place of Persistence. So it was a wonderful surprise to find the above YouTube video on the maestro himself telling this wonderful story on stage at one of his live events.

Where is God’s Perfection?

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional schools.

At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, “Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God’s perfection?”

The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father’s anguish, stilled by the piercing query.

” I believe,” the father answered, “that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child.”

He then told the following story about his son Shaya:

One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball.

Shaya asked, “Do you think they will let me play?”

Shaya’s father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya’s father understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.
Shaya’s father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said “We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.”

Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya’s team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game? Surpassingly, Shaya was given the bat.

Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact.

The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together the held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.

Everyone started yelling,”Shaya, run to first. Run to first.” Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head. Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second.” Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, “Run to third.” As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya run home.”

Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a “grand slam” and won the game for his team.

“That day,” said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, “those 18 boys reached their level of God’s perfection.”

Positive Energy Program

Kindness is Infectious & Contagious

If this story does not bring a tear to your eye, put a lump in your through or at the very least raise some emotional feelings then you should really have a look at how you can and should reconnect with humanity.

At the end of the day what you should really try to take away from this incredible story is the fact that it is extremely important to spread love and kindness to other people regardless of whether you know them or not. Because when you act in ways which are kind to others then you would be surprised at how contagious such behaviours are. Then what you will find is that others will also spread the kindness that you have given to them or they have seen you offer to others.

Motivation to be a better person

So the challenge to you is to really give some thought to the Story of Shaya written above and to go out there in your daily lives and offer a random act of kindness to any one you may or may not know. It doesn’t have to be something that is over the top but it could be as simple as buying a homeless person a coffee, paying for the road toll for the random driver behind you in the toll line, paying for the persons coffee who is in the cafe line behind you, offering small change to a beggar or other types of random acts of kindness.

You can certainly get creative in the different actions that you want to take in being kind to others.

For example I was recently in Hawaii on a lovely vacation. I had gone and bought myself a brand new pair of Nike running shoes which I absolutely loved. But my old pair of ASICS running shoes were only a couple of years old and still in great condition. After reading the Story of Shaya in Dr Wayne Dyers “The Power of Intention” I felt more of a need to spread the kindness within me.

So I decided to walk down the main stretch of road on Waikiki early one morning and offered my old ASICS shoes to the first homeless man that I can across. The homeless gentleman was ever so grateful for the small gift that I had given to him and to be quite honest I walked away on the biggest high ever. In fact the random act of kindness was probably more uplifting for me than it was for the homeless man, it really made me feel good.

Sure I could have kept my old shoes and used them from time to time or just left them in cupboard at home collecting dust but at the end of the day they would be far better off being given to someone less fortunate who could have far more use with them than I ever could.

Since this day I have been trying to spontaneously offer up small random acts of kindness on a daily basis. Remember one insignificant act on your behalf could make a world of difference to someone else & in turn it will continue with the spread of love and kindness around the world.

So challenge yourself to make a point of undertaking a Random Act of Kindness and see how you feel.

In fact I would love to hear from you in relation to what you have done and how you felt offer your act of kindness up and how the recipient reacted to your act of kindness – drop us a comment below to let us know more about your kindness experiences.