Born in 1933 with cerebral palsy, Christy Brown faced a bleak future. Knowing the difficulty of rearing such a child at the time, medical practitioners urged the parents to institutionalize him. They instead took him home and loved him. In time Christy Brown became a world-renowned artist and the object of an Academy Award winning film My Left Foot. The impossible happening.
In the late 1870's, a practical nurse diagnosed herself as a breast-cancer patient. Consulting a surgeon didn't help; she couldn't afford his $25 fee. She rented a room in her hometown and, without anesthetics, cut off her own breast. By God's grace she endured the shock and pain to live many years. The impossible happening. All aerodynamic evidence suggests that the bumblebee's body weight, compared with its wing spread, makes it impossible to fly. Unaware of its misfortune, the bumblebee flies anyway and manages to make a little honey in the process. The impossible happening. The vow of a volunteer to fight Goliath soon reached Saul. Excited to find someone to substitute for him as the tallest man in Israel, the king's heart sank when seeing a boy walk into the tent. A YOUTH vowing to kill a "fighting MAN" from his youth? IMPOSSIBLE. The lad stiffened his back, snapped his shoulders square to make him LOOK tall as he FELT, crooked his arm in a salute and, in a voice suddenly like a man's solemnly explained in two reasons why he couldn't fail. The first—and the one in this blog--his confidence from previous experience with God in impossible situations, represented by the lion and bear. One of the predators would occasionally snatch a lamb and hurry it away. To be instantly pursued by David with his shepherd's crook, shouting his defiance. Seeing him, the animals assumed predator status of bigger game. Only to find themselves prey to God-given strength they couldn't contest. THEY, the killers, became the KILLED. Who but Samson in Hebrew history had single-handedly torn a lion open at the mouth? That model established God's willingness to use any servant trusting him to overcome impossible challenges. Which David in his role as shepherd had embodied. To him the Giant proved simply another predator God would tear apart. Question: do we have any past experience where we saw God WORK on our behalf, helping through difficulties greater than our capacity or experience? Can't we let those memories empower us in present situations that seem too tough to confront, to contest, to conquer? God will never let us face alone to defeat what he THROUGH us successfully accomplishes. End Part III
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