How Does It Work for Ya?

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
Abraham Lincoln

I read this today about Abraham Lincoln, some time in the past I also read about his popular letter to his son where he advised him not to give up until he made he last effort and not to make his last effort until he was sure it would yield the wanted result. I’m a strong believer of this principle, I’ve lived it several times in my life, and however the trend of things in the last six months leaves me with no further saying to consider but the one right below.
Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.
Anthony J. D'Angelo,
I‘ll spare you the details of it. But it all brings to mind the controversies about Destiny and ability of prayers to change the course of things. Do these things really work???? I’ve never been a spiritual type, and I have all intentions to stay so. This leaves me with just some wise words from a guy I did not really admire his personality but always adored his words. I am talking about a one time Governor of one of the Northern states in Nigeria who once said the “Downfall of a man is not the end of his life” Ironically this man’s downfall which came a week after passing this comment turned out to be the end of his life. He fell from a Horse back and broke his spine. If the power of words is anything to go by, I’ll definitely wish for some thing different. I at least have this very fundamental understanding of life. I see it as a continuous struggle, the day you stop struggling...you’ll stop being. Seen from a different perspective, it’s all about falling and rising again. It takes a fall to appreciate a rise and that’s the most interesting thing about it all, uncertainty about which comes next, a rise or a fall, I guess life would have been miserably boring if there was absolute certainty about when we’ll rise/Fall, it’s like knowing the score of the world cup finals even before the qualifies kick off. I’ll let you to scale up/down the effect of being in perfect control of our destiny through prayers etc. It’s all up to your imaginations.
I see life as not just about the number of times you fall but the number of times you rise after falling…I can at least make out a fulcrum between Abraham Lincoln and Anthony J. D’Angelo’s Views…But I’m surprisingly not able to offere a good explanation about the destiny part of it and the control we have over it (be it through prayers or other wise) What do you think about this or rather how do you see it ????