Sunday, “Best of” messages

February 14^th, ‘10

THE GIFT OF HANDICAP

“So I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations” (2 Corinthians 12:7 The Message)

There are a ton of people who aren’t in the least in danger of getting a “big head” who have been given the “gift of handicap”, and they don’t understand why they have been so privileged. That is one of those unknowns that won’t be disclosed until later. We don’t know what Paul’s handicap, his “thorn in the flesh”, was. We probably have been left in the dark so we can vicariously wear his shoes. The mystery of his thorn means that he becomes the prototype for suffering for all believers, except for the Master prototype that we find in Christ crucified. God answered his threefold prayer differently than what Paul desired. In wisdom God answers with what’s best for us, not what’s easiest – “My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…” (vs 9) Divine grace always accompanies this divine gift.

In Paul’s case it was to keep him “in touch with his limitations”. You know the reasons preachers and therapists give – the handicap makes you more compassionate to others, it can be used to build patience and character, it lets you know you are human, it forces dependence on God, it opens doors for you that would otherwise be closed, it brings out the fighter inside, and all that. Those are all positive and important but they still don’t explain how losing a leg at war or entering life with the trauma of spinal bifida can be a gift. We err in emphasizing the handicap instead of the Help. Paul’s thorn was specifically termed “the messenger of Satan” (vs 7). Ah, so God didn’t send it, He instead determined to use it! One gag T-Shirt says that Jesus beat the devil with a big ugly stick, speaking of the cross. True…He takes the ugliest of circumstances and uses them as weapons against the very evil one that sent them. Remember that Haman was hung on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. Grace pulls the ultimate switcheroo – “howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing” (Neh 13:2).

Samuel Rutherford penned, “When I’m in the cellar of suffering I look for the choicest of the Lord’s wines”. Others only find “whines” in that cellar. Bly philosophizes, “Where a man’s wound is, that is where his genius will be”. The gift of handicap forces the genius out. It is Beethoven writing symphonies “by ear” rather than sight because he was going blind, or Mozart doing the same by memory because he was going deaf. There need be no “cap” in handicap. 47 year-old Mark Inglis scaled to the summit of Mt. Everest on two artificial limbs. Every marathon has finishers who are either blind, jogging on prosthetic legs or invalid being pushed in a cart by a loving spouse or parent. They have basketball leagues for guys in wheelchairs. David Ring has become one of America’s most popular preachers though handicapped with cerebral palsy. Overcoming the odds is more than a slap in the devil’s face, it is a crushing blow. We are only capped by handicap when we accept defeat and go into hibernation. The oddest overcomers I’ve heard of are “blind golfers”. No, I don’t know how they do it, but for love of the game, more power to them. You know, in golf you are supposed to improve your handicap with clubs on the driving range (most do it with the pencil on the scorecard. That is misuse of the gift). If it is a gift then it needs opened, celebrated and put to use.