Walking with a Limp

Genesis 32:24-32
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. 28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[f] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” 29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[g] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[h] and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Have you ever had an injury to your foot, or knee, or leg that caused you to limp? When I was in high school, I was in a PE class. The last day of the class, in my senior year, I was playing basketball to kill time. I had the ball, and was about to drive to the right and lay it in, when the defender cut me off, and accidentally tripped me. I spun in the air, and landed square on the inside of my left knee. After icing it for the remainder of class, I walked, with a limp, for about 2 weeks and the pain and swelling went away. I thought nothing of it and did not go to get it checked out. Later, I was feeling the pain again, this time in tandem with a major "pop" sound and burning in my knee. I went to the Dr., got an MRI, and was told "there are no conclusive results" and sent on my way. However, a few years later, after having a child, and deciding to get into my 30's better than I left my 20's, I noticed that my knee was hurting a lot more. So I went to the Dr. yet again and am awaiting an MRI yet again. Truly encountering God should permanently change your life in tangible ways. Have you ever talked to a youth group member who just returned from summer camp? They are excited and they say things like, "my life is never going to be the same." But so often, you see those same youth group members going back to their habits, or life, and regressing the changes that God made in their lives. I used to think that it was because they "didn't really encounter God" but my silly notions changed. God revealed to me that He did in fact touch them, and they were in fact "changed." They got their "hip wrenched" and have pain, but in walking with a spiritual limp, they are ignoring the pain. Similar to the way the pain I had in my knee wasn't a problem until I decided to workout. Now that I am older, and I did not get it fixed sooner, I have to deal with the fact that I cannot workout as hard and get the results I so desperately want. However, all is not lost. I can see the results by getting corrective actions taken, whether through physical therapy, or surgery. More pain selah When you want to go deeper in the things of God, unless you take more pain, and do things that will fix what you did not adjust and change before, you will most likely deal with more pain. Either emotional or physical, they are results of the choices we made not to acknowledge the pain and correct our behavior sooner. While I do not know if I will need surgery to fix my knee, I can tell you that I definitely am inhibited in my movements and it changes how my live is lived. I cannot play long on the floor with my son before it hurts a lot. I cannot lose the weight and go to higher levels in my fitness without correction. In the end, our spiritual lives are like that. We cannot hope to move to higher things in God if we continue to ignore the pain of change that God is asking us to make. Selah

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Analyst's view of Luke pt. 3

Luke 1:21-38 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. 22 But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. 23 So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. 24 Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” Christ’s Birth Announced to Mary 26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”[a] 29 But when she saw him,[b] she was troubled at his sayi
Read more

My daddy

In this world where so many are fatherless, many are frustrated and angry at their fathers, I want to take a few moments to talk about my dad. My dad was a fighter! When I say fighter I don't mean that he fought for money, or was in the Army. What I mean is that my dad fought many problems. He fought long days to provide for our family, he fought the attitudes my siblings and myself had towards him. He fought rejection, he fought loss, he fought being without a job, he fought the end of our church, he fought so much. It would be easy to look back at one of those areas and say, "Dad you didn't do enough!" It would be easy to look back at the long days he spent trying to provide for us away from us; a task that I cannot fathom at the present. Why do I bring this up? Why did I talk about him? The biggest reason is that today he embarks on perhaps the biggest journey of his life. He leaves for a 6 month job. A job that will take him THOUSANDS of miles away from his wife,
Read more

Lead like Jesus

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great  millstone  fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. - Matthew 18:4 but Jesus said,   “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”  - Matthew 19:14 These two verses make it abundantly clear to me that Jesus' mind is focused squarely on the children. In fact, Jesus makes it clear to us that if we mess with Children's access to God, we have some serious consequences awaiting us.   We see these verses and my mind immediately jumps to what we see in the present day. Lawmakers, teachers, activists, and people who are NOT you are trying to dramatically change your children. I get the understanding that interrupting children's access to Jesus is a big deal.  Jesus mentions that we shouldn't infringe, impact, or worst of all, cause a little one to sin. But what we see is quite the o
Read more