“Prayer is very powerful. If not for prayer, I would not be where I am today.”

David Gumble, of the One World Blue Network, is no stranger to adversity though he refuses ever to be defined by it. One minute before Thanksgiving, on November 25, 1992, David’s soul entered this world. He was premature and born via a turbulent Caesarean Section that David suspects is the cause of him living with Cerebral Palsy. This condition necessitates that David utilizes a wheelchair for his daily mobility. He was born as well with a visual impairment that was not discovered until well into his first year of life. It required surgery to ensure that whatever eyesight he did have would be saved.

“Everything in our lives happens for a reason.”

David was born with Epilepsy and suffered continuously throughout childhood with intense seizures. By the age of 5, his hip was routinely jolted from its socket, and he was in excruciating pain, prompting the doctors to recommend surgery.

“ I lied on the ground, and I prayed with all the strength I could muster. I prayed like my life depended on it, because it really did. The pain stopped, and when I returned to the doctors, they were shocked to see that my problem had corrected itself. This was my first very revelatory encounter with God, and showed me the power of prayer and connecting to the Almighty.”

By the age of 9, David’s parents had split up, and six months from that point, the house that he and his mother called home burned entirely to the ground. Miraculously, no one was home, but the house and all therein was destroyed.

“As my mother cried, I had a strong realization that I could be very thankful that we were all still here and safe, and that all we had truly lost was just stuff. Additionally, the house was not adequate for us, and I looked forward to the new possibilities with a positive resolve..”

This positive resolve has continuously lifted David through odds that the vast majority of us would find insurmountable. At the age of 10, David underwent surgery to lengthen the tendons in his legs. This operation was undertaken with the intention that David would be able to walk from its success. He remembers waking up in agonizing pain mid-operation, as they had not administered the proper amount of anesthesia. The surgery was not completed, and David was stitched up as quickly and safely as possible and underwent many months of physical therapy.

“I moved toward a mindset of acceptance and gratitude for what I did have. I said to myself, “Hey, I’ve got all my limbs; I don’t need to walk; it could be even worse.” Rather than a life of endless surgeries and their possible complications, I chose to live a life of acceptance of my circumstances and the pursuit of happiness. I look for no pity; I am a human being like anyone else and deserve no pity or special treatment. I let my life experiences be my teacher and though there has been immense pain, I strive to find meaning and joy in all things.“

With all that David had endured up to this point, he vividly remembers that around the age of 12 or 13, he decided that he had to pave his way. He became grounded in his principals and morals and forged his way forward, refusing to ever succumb to a victim mentality.

“ I was blessed with strength and an extraordinary family.”

Throughout high school, David was regarded by the administration as basically an incapable person; he was considered someone who was slow, stupid, or too disabled to pursue his dreams. David faced this all with tremendous strength, courage, and determination to never allow the outside world to define him and his abilities.

“In high school, I really followed my own way. I was never one to follow trends and didn’t care to be socially accepted as a measuring stick of my worth and success. I just put my head down and focused on getting through. Though I had much opposition at every turn, most rigorously from the school itself, I was blessed with a mentor and advocate in my U.S. History teacher Brian Minich. Brian believed in me like I did myself and encouraged that inner resolve in me.”

David developed an intense passion for music during this time; listening to music became his escape from quite a hostile world. He was never one to delve into drugs and alcohol. He was interested in really feeling alive. Music gave him life and joy. His interest in pursuing music in some capacity was met dismissively in his sophomore year of high school, but it was a dream on which he would never give up.

In 2010, David was a senior in high school and on the verge of graduating, when he developed a cyst the size of a softball underneath his thigh. He was determined to graduate but was bedridden in a hospital. He finished his requirements from that hospital bed, and with the help and advocacy of Mr. Minich, they pushed the school to allow him to graduate on time.

“The following three years would be another very trying time for me. It took that long to heal from the cyst, diagnose the underlying issue, and successfully treat it. It was determined that I had inverse acne, a skin irritation that develops underneath the skin, not on the surface. For one of those years, I was completely bedridden. My family took total care of me, and I truly did not leave the bed for anything. My inner will was never crushed, but it was certainly tried. Prayer is truly powerful.”

In 2015, David remembered another direct encounter with the Divine. Still deeply enamored with music, David made and still maintains a close personal friendship with a band called, “The Chesapeake Sons,” whom he has seen at least 40 or 50 times to date. While attending a show and caught up in the ecstasy of the music, he heard his soul speaking to him.

“I had been pondering the idea of pursuing music production and recording but struggled with hesitation and some self-doubt. Lost in the music that night in 2015, it was like angels came to me and said, “David, go do this, you can do this; you are ready.” It was an incredibly powerful evening, and the following year I enrolled in the Sheffield Institute for the Recording Arts in Phoenix, Maryland.”

David’s experience in college was the complete opposite of his high school years. He was immersed in learning what he loved, and all in a nurturing environment with supportive teachers and peers.

David graduated in 2017, with a degree in audio engineering, a dream he actualized against all the odds.

David has never let others define him or limit his abilities, and despite all he’s been through he’s never allowed himself to fall into despair. David is truly an ambassador of goodness, kindness, strength, and conviction.

In late 2019, he joined the One World Blue Network at https://www.blupela.com as a Project Sales Leader. The world is a brighter place because of David Gumble’s refusal to let the world define him, and his insistence that it becomes the world it was created to be.