Comments on: Why We Need A God Who Favors The Weak http://specialhopenetwork.com/184/why-we-need-a-god-who-favors-the-weak Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:20:36 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: gordon http://specialhopenetwork.com/184/why-we-need-a-god-who-favors-the-weak/comment-page-1#comment-8 gordon Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:14:47 +0000 http://specialhopenetwork.com/?p=184#comment-8 today i sat with a 14 year old boy as we waited for the ambulance to come yet again, and i watched his limbs shaking and his eyes trembling and heard his wild laughter and his wordless sounds and felt his hot skin under my hands trying to calm him; he shook and cried and laughed and his thin legs plunged up and down against the stiff metal of his wheelchair, and i was powerless. the medics arrived, cool and professional, scooping him up, all the while taking histories of illness and medications and disabilities, and carried him away to the enormous, clean, well staffed teaching hospital of the university town where we live. there his blood levels of various important things will be tested, he will be evaluated and assessed and given nutrition and hydration and eventually, God willing, he will be released to his loving, worried foster mother. what a moment of revelation - that this orphan here in the usa, with multiple, severe, and profound physical and intellectual disabilities, has been in the public school system since he was just out of infancy; that he has been taught by some of the best people i've ever met; that he receives the best medical care our area has to offer; that no one has set him aside in an overcrowded, under-staffed, forgotten place without teachers, love, support, or hope. i couldn't stop his seizing in the classroom, i can't make him walk or talk or read or hold a pencil - i can't heal him; i can't help all the forgotten, lost children like him in africa - but - through this child and the constant reminders of the frailty of our physical selves, i can see what my weak and complacent nature has led me to forget: "the LORD my God has brought me into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where we will eat food without scarcity, in which we will not lack anything ..." i have been blessed thus, and yet often "my heart becomes proud and i forget the LORD my God, who has brought me out from the bondage" of legalism and lies and the worries of the flesh. i was today a broken orphan who lashes out at the hand of God, as i held a broken orphan in my arms who simply is in the hand of God; as i am given the extraordinary gift of clarity of vision through the weakness of this child, mine is revealed; through my weakness, the LORD's blessings are revealed - and finally the truth begins to dawn: "i can do anything through Christ who strengthens me!" if He leads me anywhere, there will i follow, rejoicing. The LORD is our strength - where else would we go? today i sat with a 14 year old boy as we waited for the ambulance to come yet again, and i watched his limbs shaking and his eyes trembling and heard his wild laughter and his wordless sounds and felt his hot skin under my hands trying to calm him; he shook and cried and laughed and his thin legs plunged up and down against the stiff metal of his wheelchair, and i was powerless.
the medics arrived, cool and professional, scooping him up, all the while taking histories of illness and medications and disabilities, and carried him away to the enormous, clean, well staffed teaching hospital of the university town where we live. there his blood levels of various important things will be tested, he will be evaluated and assessed and given nutrition and hydration and eventually, God willing, he will be released to his loving, worried foster mother.

what a moment of revelation – that this orphan here in the usa, with multiple, severe, and profound physical and intellectual disabilities, has been in the public school system since he was just out of infancy; that he has been taught by some of the best people i’ve ever met; that he receives the best medical care our area has to offer; that no one has set him aside in an overcrowded, under-staffed, forgotten place without teachers, love, support, or hope.
i couldn’t stop his seizing in the classroom, i can’t make him walk or talk or read or hold a pencil – i can’t heal him; i can’t help all the forgotten, lost children like him in africa – but – through this child and the constant reminders of the frailty of our physical selves, i can see what my weak and complacent nature has led me to forget:
“the LORD my God has brought me into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where we will eat food without scarcity, in which we will not lack anything …” i have been blessed thus, and yet often “my heart becomes proud and i forget the LORD my God, who has brought me out from the bondage” of legalism and lies and the worries of the flesh.

i was today a broken orphan who lashes out at the hand of God, as i held a broken orphan in my arms who simply is in the hand of God; as i am given the extraordinary gift of clarity of vision
through the weakness of this child, mine is revealed; through my weakness, the LORD’s blessings are revealed – and finally the truth begins to dawn: “i can do anything through Christ who strengthens me!” if He leads me anywhere, there will i follow, rejoicing.
The LORD is our strength – where else would we go?

]]> By: gordon http://specialhopenetwork.com/184/why-we-need-a-god-who-favors-the-weak/comment-page-1#comment-4 gordon Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:02:25 +0000 http://specialhopenetwork.com/?p=184#comment-4 i can process the idea that God is perpetually happy with Himself, but that He is happy with the world and our sin and the terrible things we do outside of Him is a tough one ... but possibly that is what edwards is really saying (but i haven't read it - can you tell?). anyway, having got that out of the way, i am always amazed that anyone could ever feel consistently strong or safe or protected here in the world; like peter's response to Jesus: "Lord, where else would we go?" as i have been reading through the Word, it becomes daily more clear: i have been a slave in egypt and yet while wandering in the wilderness a free woman, i have cried out in anger and self pity to return to the bondage of pharaoh; i have offered strange fire to the Lord; i have bitterly complained that i should be considered as holy as anyone; i have worshipped idols, golden calves made from the leftovers of my past; i have trusted in armies and horses and told lies about the promised land - we can't take it, it's defended by giants, fall back, retreat, give up; i have denied my Savior and been inhospitable to strangers and failed to visit the sick, the prisoner, the widow, the orphan ... and yet - who will save me from this body of death? thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord! without Him, i am a desperate, broken, wandering orphan - where else could i go? i can process the idea that God is perpetually happy with Himself, but that He is happy with the world and our sin and the terrible things we do outside of Him is a tough one … but possibly that is what edwards is really saying (but i haven’t read it – can you tell?).
anyway, having got that out of the way, i am always amazed that anyone could ever feel consistently strong or safe or protected here in the world; like peter’s response to Jesus: “Lord, where else would we go?”
as i have been reading through the Word, it becomes daily more clear: i have been a slave in egypt and yet while wandering in the wilderness a free woman, i have cried out in anger and self pity to return to the bondage of pharaoh; i have offered strange fire to the Lord; i have bitterly complained that i should be considered as holy as anyone; i have worshipped idols, golden calves made from the leftovers of my past; i have trusted in armies and horses and told lies about the promised land – we can’t take it, it’s defended by giants, fall back, retreat, give up; i have denied my Savior and been inhospitable to strangers and failed to visit the sick, the prisoner, the widow, the orphan … and yet -
who will save me from this body of death? thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord!
without Him, i am a desperate, broken, wandering orphan – where else could i go?

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