By Robert Halsey Pine
“Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:12-29 NRSV).
Adam saw to it that we would start out our lives lame. Hey, that fits right in with today’s number one societal rule: “Blame somebody else!” Thank goodness our sinful nature is Adam’s fault and not ours.
The Lord says to me, “Not so fast there, buster.” He reminds me that Adam’s was the original sin and that we are already forgiven for the complications of Adam’s action. We don’t have to blame anything on anybody. We have a chance to get things right by seeking the Lord in our lives.
Yes, we are lame in our sinful disposition, but we need to make the most out of our lameness. God’s promise of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ will once and for all heal us, but we need to be working on our therapy as we finish out our natural lives. We need to lift up our drooping hands and build up our weak knees. How about the path that we are on? Is it a curvy trail? Does it go up and down? Does it run on the edge of a precipice? Do we run the chance of aggravating our lameness? What are our chances of healing with the type of activity that we choose?
So many have overcome their physical lameness. I was in high school with a fellow who was in a serious automobile accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. This was lameness to the max for him.
Soon after his accident, he began an effort to overcome his lameness. He started painting scenes by holding a paintbrush with his teeth. He became a celebrated artist and married one of the nurses that took care of him in his lameness. He is an example to all people. His life challenges our spiritual lameness.
My friend could do nothing about his drooping hands or weak knees, but he took a path that protected his lameness and overcame it in an unusual way. Where is our courage in our spiritual lameness?
Are we willing to lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees? My friend found a way to lift the unliftable and strengthen the unusable. Are we going to choose a path that will convert our spiritual lameness into a blessing?
Through his patience and faith my friend overcame his physical lameness in a way that blessed him and all around him. How can we accept our spiritual lameness? We must hold a brush with our teeth and paint a beautiful path that leads to our Lord and God.
Robert Halsey Pine was born at Newark, Ohio in 1943. He is a graduate of Northeastern University and completed the program of Theological Education by Extension: Education for Ministry, School of Theology, the University of the South.