THE LAME TO WALK

A career advancement opportunity made me move our family to Indiianapolis, Indiana  in 1989.  It was a big city environment. I was introduced to race cars, a large number of new people, and a very intense workload which required finding my way to many, many different locations in the city and around the state.

Initially, I went there by myself and lived in a hotel.  I knew ten plus hour work days would consume my energy and being alone would turn my focus from any type of meaningful relationship with God.

One night, after being bored with channel surfing, I scratched out these words in the hope of stimulating my relationship with God.  I never really put it into finished form so what you read is what was written, scratched out, and ended up on a piece of tan note paper that night. 

                                             THE LAME TO WALK

                                  I suffer no crippling childhood disease.

                                  No accident has torn the power from my legs.

                                  No war has caused my step to falter.

                                  Yet, I am lame, I sway, stumble and stagger.

                                 Lift me from my bended knees.

                                Give stability to my feeble legs.

                                Teach me to stand, to turn, to walk.

                                 Lord, walk with me to Jerusalem.

I stuffed this note in my briefcase and forgot it so I never really put a writer's finishing thoughts in it nor did I repeat it as a prayer to God as I had intended.  A few weeks ago I was reading some things I have written over the past 35 years or so and found this draft in a file.  God's spirit has moved me to tell you He answered this prayer in at least two significant ways and probably more ways than I can ever explain.

The first way, I now see, is when our family finally moved into a neighborhood in Indianapolis we found a nearby church and our children were invited to a vacation Bible school.  That was the beginning of a period of spiritual growth, small group fellowship, developing special God given relationships,  and an opportunity for our children to share their faith in the public schools.  God also taught me to stand and walk where He expected me to use my spiritual gifts in this church.

The second way he answered this prayer is even more amazing to me. I was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis while we lived in Indianapolis.  The consequences were minimal at the time and due to a lack of knowledge of the effects of MS, we had no idea what the future would hold.  The past 18 years we have experienced changes in our lifestyle, our employment, and our faith.  The story is complex and still goes on.  I now am classified as having secondary progressive MS, which in a nut shell means my health will continue to decline.  I have been confined to a wheel chair for a little over a year, am "medically retired"  and am unable to walk or do much else with my legs.

But oh how He has answered this prayer.  Physically He has left me crippled, weak,  lame and yet has given me stability in my legs to move in and out of my wheel chair through the exercises of men who share His call to love me day by day.  He has taught me to "walk" with Him through  the Bible, prayer and the fellowship of friends.  And He is walking with me to Jerusalem by allowing me the privilege of writing notes like this and others by placing His comforting Spirit in my heart.

 The more we share of our salvation through Jesus Christ the more people will praise Him and bring glory to God.

 Today, I am convicted I am called to share the words found in 2 Coriinthians 4: 16-18.   "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and the momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not one what is seen, but what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is seen is eternal."

To the glory of Christ,  Steve