Hobble

Last Friday was a busy day for me, so I ran and picked up lunch to bring back to the office. Chick-fil-A was my natural choice. As I was leaving, there was a lady coming with her leg in some medical get-up that made her walk a little slower that perhaps she was used to. I held the door for her, and grabbed the second door, too (why they put two doors, I have no idea)… and she said the customary thank you and something along the lines of having to hobble everywhere. “We all have to hobble sometimes," I said, in a quick attempt to be pseudo-conversational.  She laughed and that was that.

Perhaps, in my attempt to be witty, I was unintentionally more the wiser than I realized. We all have to stumble sometimes. While I do not mean we will all eventually spend a few days in a cast, I do mean that spiritually, we are prone to stumble and - often times - fall.  When we fall, any first reaction we have usually carries one purpose - to look like we haven't fallen. Frequently, we naturally want to jump back to our feet and survey the area for any onlookers that have just witnessed this blemish in our perfect stroll.  Other times, we have pain from the fall, but we walk anyway, trying harder by the step to not look as though something isn't right.  When we must, we go to the doctor and get put in a cast.  No one really likes that - it forces us to face our fall every day; and worse: people will know.  No matter how hard we try to cover it up, not matter how quickly we want our wounds to heal, the worst part of it all is that others will know.  Why is that?

When, in sin, do we look for grace?  

Before we sin and say we never found it?  

While we sin and say it's to late? 

After we sin and blame it on not enough?  

Perhaps Christians have done a great job of showing everyone how to get up quickly from the fall and walk again... we've made our churches into hospitals of broken people all walking around with casts praying no one notices.

We've all fallen.  In fact, We were all born fallen.  As a Christian, I have been reborn, though... this time - I've been born into grace.  What does that mean?

We don't have to look for grace.

Before we sin, we have been given grace that is enough.

While we sin, we cannot sin it away.

After we sin, we cannot find His grace to be inadequate.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ made reside in me." 2 Cor 12:9

We should never boast in our sin.  That is foolish.  We should boast in our Savior whose grace is enough no matter how bad of a fall we had or how wounded a person we are.  His power is perfect in our weakness.

Perhaps a great lesson for us to learn is not to worry so much about looking like we are perfect walkers with 'hidden' limps, but to realize we, as Christians, are chosen to have the ability to walk at all... and, even though we fall, and even though we all have to hobble sometimes... in that very ability to walk, grace abounds.