So You're Handicapped?

Mon, 23 Dec 1996

Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 338 


     Here's another daily meditation from my recent book of devotions
     'Sunrise Sunset' (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco). Feel free
     to use/adapt it. These appear regularly on our mail-list.

     Shalom!  Rowland Croucher

     Director, John Mark Ministries - resources for pastors/leaders.
       (Bookroom, library, and worldwide F.W.Boreham Trading Post)
                 Home Page: http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm


                          SO YOU'RE HANDICAPPED?

A thorn was given me... to torment me, to keep me from being too
elated. 2 Corinthians 12:7.


In 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 Paul lists the handicaps and discouragements
that befell him. He also had a physical problem of some sort - a 'thorn
in the flesh' - to keep him from becoming too proud.

At the age of 39, in the prime of life, polio struck Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.  He couldn't walk, stand without support, and was, as one
doctor put it, 'a goner below the waist'.  Look at this proud, wealthy,
famous man who felt terribly humiliated being carried up and down
stairs... and so hour after hour he'd crawl over his library floor like
a child, and day after day he'd haul his dead weight up the stairs by
the power of his hands and arms, step by step, slowly, determinedly,
until he was covered with perspiration and trembling from exhaustion.
But then he would try again - and again.

But after this illness, Roosevelt's name became synonymous with help to
the downtrodden, the weak, the helpless, and the fearful.  Describing
this transformation of character, this moving from surface to depth,
from cleverness to compassion, from haughtiness to humility, John
Gunther says that 'polio was God's greatest gift to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.'


May the example of these brave people spur me on, too, Lord. If they can
do it, so can I. Here we go! Amen.
____________________________

Clergy/Leaders' Mailing List                        (Moderated)

This mailing list is open to all Christians via Internet e-mail 
and most fax destinations.

Submissions welcome: clergy@pastornet.net.au 

To unsubscribe, e-mail to: clergy-request@pastornet.net.au 
                               with SUBJECT reading UNSUBSCRIBE

   Copyright: Postings may be re-sent ONLY with all copyright
                     notifications intact.

        A PastorNET ministry: manager@pastornet.net.au

Clergy Mailing List Index | Mailing List Index | PastorNET Home Page | John Mark Ministries Home Page