Tuesday one week ago, in retrospect, I made the foolish decision to mix it up in a Basketball game at 10:30 p.m. at my gym. Having played basketball competitively throughout my life this seemed like a rather natural and instinctual choice. The result at least this time, was that I came down badly from a rebound and ripped up my foot badly enough to cause a severe sprain, accompanied with some ligament damage. My days of competing with kids half my age are probably winding down. Since the mishap I have tried to do my part in bringing a speedy recovery…RICE has been applied…REST / ICE / COMPRESSION / ELEVATION. And another thing has been applied and that is prayer. Prayer that I would have a more expeditious, pain-free recovery…and quickly no less because I want to be well for summer vacation activity. But as of today’s writing it appears, that providence would have me healing later rather than sooner. Which brings a revisit to the age old mystery of the timing and will of God as it pertains to healing…as it pertains to answered and unanswered prayers and whole host of other enigmatic conundrums which befuddle our overworked brains.
When God doesn’t do what we want, it’s not easy. Never has been. Never will be. But faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and He will get us through it. Remember, disappointment is cured by revamped expectations.
I like the story about the fellow who went to the pet store in search of a singing parakeet. Seems he was a bachelor and his house was too quiet. The store owner had just the bird for him, so the man bought it. The next day the bachelor came home from work to a house full of music. He went to the cage to feed the bird and noticed for the first time that the parakeet had only one leg.
He felt cheated that he’d been sold a one-legged bird, so he called and complained. “What do you want,” the store owner responded, “a bird who can sing or a bird that can dance?” That is a good question in the midst of times of disappointment. We want it all sometimes, we want it quickly most times, and often we don’t get quite what we have expected. But in the midst of it all we take consolation in the words of the great Apostle 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Concerning this thorn in my flesh, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. The Word of the Lord. He told me to tell you!
Pastor Robert