LIMITATIONS

2 Corinthians 12:9—But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

He rolled up to the sidelines in a wheelchair and I couldn’t help but wonder what thoughts crisscrossed his mind. Soccer is not a game for the lame. Yet he came out to watch perhaps wistfully at what he could no longer do, or at peace--able still to enjoy an event in which his friends were engaged. He reminded me of Bryan, my 12-year-old hero.

There is probably not a month that goes by where I do not learn from my son. Bryan’s right leg is one inch shorter than his left. He is vulnerable to bouts of dizziness. He cannot take Stephen down wrestling despite being five years older. His brother has all the speed and power he was never given. He’s the last to be picked on a team but that doesn’t stop him from eagerly participating. Radiation may have slowed his mind and robbed him of natural growth but it couldn’t dampen his contagious spirit. For eight years his brain-stem tumor has remained dormant. That which the doctors say cannot be cured, God has mercifully held in check.

Bryan the lion views life from a wide-angle lens. He has had to learn patience, overcome physical disorders, deflect the withered arrows of doubt that assault his self-esteem and wrestle with questions many of us don’t have to ask. Yet he does not linger in the valley of Whaticannotdo. He does not let the fear of death paralyze his living. He walks with Jesus.

God is not just a Father we learn about from the Bible and those special times of prayer. God is the very real loving Lord we see at work in the lives of people. His grace is sufficient for us. His power is made perfect by our weaknesses. I see that might at work in my son whom I love dearly. I watch him fall and get back up. I see his tender heart. I admire his gentle affection as he plops his 95 pounds on my lap. Bryan did not choose to let bitterness reside with fragility. He locked his faith as a child in One he has never seen yet continuously trusted. A Savior unintimidated by limitation refines his character.

If you or someone you know is discouraged by weakness may I offer the words of my boy who reminded me long ago when I could not help but focus on a wicked tumor, “Don’t worry Dad, God will take care of it.”

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Co.12:10).

Inspiration

It is better to enter into life maimed and lovely in God’s sight than to be lovely in man’s sight and lame in God’s.—Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest