Strength In A Wheelchair

Strength in a Wheelchair

We [run with endurance] by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross. Hebrews 12:2

In this imperfect world, we often think we must have it all together before we can accomplish good. But what if we didn’t wait until we attained perfection before helping others?

One of my favorite counselor friends, Lon Adams, is paralyzed from the waist down because of a long-ago operation for a spinal tumor. Recently, after visiting a friend at the hospital, Lon noticed a man in his early forties studying his wheelchair as they waited for the elevator. Ignoring Lon, the man walked around the chair several times.

“May I help you?” Lon finally asked.

The man’s story tumbled out. His sixteen-year-old daughter had recently been paralyzed in an automobile accident and would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Would Lon visit her upstairs and encourage her that life wasn’t over?

A few minutes later, Lon wheeled up to the bed of a beautiful young girl who would never again race after a soccer ball or run to class. He listened as she sobbed her fears; he answered the family’s questions about paralysis and listed things he could still do, and then he prayed with them. But later he told me he wasn’t sure how much help he’d been to her as he sat in a wheelchair himself.

“That’s the whole point,” I said. “If I’m ever paralyzed, I want to hear from someone like you, not some able-bodied person telling me it’s going to be all right.”

While Lon saw his paralysis as a great weakness limiting his power, the newly paralyzed teen was encouraged her life could still hold good things. And all because an imperfect man provided perfect encouragement. —SANDRA

Lord, help me to concentrate on your strength rather than on my weakness. Help me to be ready to make others aware of their abilities rather than ruminate on my own inability.

How many people stop because so few say, “Go!”

—CHARLES SWINDOLL, PASTOR, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR, AND RADIO PREACHER