Yesterday my friend Arlen was helpfully commenting that having physical or geographical limitations does not mean that we are not able to have a significant impact. The key thing is not what constraints are placed on us but in how we respond to them. There is always the potential to find opportunity and to encourage the good no matter how daunting and difficult our situation.
Some of the best and purest wild honey can be discovered in clefts and crannies on rock faces and in caves. The sweetest substance found in some hard places.
Yesterday my friend Arlen was helpfully commenting that having physical or geographical limitations does not mean that we are not able to have a significant impact. The key thing is not what constraints are placed on us but in how we respond to them. There is always the potential to find opportunity and to encourage the good no matter how daunting and difficult our situation.
Some of the best and purest wild honey can be discovered in clefts and crannies on rock faces and in caves. The sweetest substance found in some hard places.
Day 81
Yesterday my friend Arlen was helpfully commenting that having physical or geographical limitations does not mean that we are not able to have a significant impact. The key thing is not what constraints are placed on us but in how we respond to them. There is always the potential to find opportunity and to encourage the good no matter how daunting and difficult our situation.
Corrie ten Boom writes in “The Hiding Place” of her experiences in the horrors of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp during the Holocaust. On one occasion she famously tells of being sceptical about her sister, Betsie, taking the verse in the Bible about giving thanks in all circumstances just a little bit bit too far.
“Thank you," Betsie went on serenely, "for the fleas and for-"
The fleas! This was too much. "Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea."
"Give thanks in all circumstances," she quoted. "It doesn't say, 'in pleasant circumstances.' Fleas are part of this place where God has put us."
And so we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.” Corrie ten Boom, “The Hiding Place”
Later Betsie tells Corrie that she has discovered that the freedom they enjoy in the hut to talk and read the Bible was because the guards would not come in because of the fleas. It is just one episode in an extraordinary story of two sisters not just trying to survive but to share hope in the most desperate circumstances.
Paul writing to the Philippians shares some of the consequences of his imprisonment both for his immediate circle of influence and through his example the wider community. It has not closed him down or blunted the gospel. It has had the exact opposite result from what was intended or would be expected to take place.
“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (1:12-14)
He has observed that his being in chains has not inhibited the witness of the community of faith but has emboldened it. There has been a growth of confidence in the gospel. He also testifies that because of his adverse circumstances the gospel has been clarified to the entire palace guard. An elite military unit have an opportunity to encounter Jesus because of Paul’s imprisonment.
Later when Paul gets to Rome he is kept under house arrest with a soldier to guard him. It must have either been the best or the worst duty assignment in the Roman Army.
How we handle adversity will in large measure determine opportunity. Hardship tends to turn us inward on ourselves with the question “What am I doing here now?”. Faith asks a similar question, “Why has the Lord put me here now?”
Stacey Woods, a leader in InterVarsity and IFES hated flying but frequently flew to pioneer student ministry in different countries. In 1944 he was flying from Colombia to Cuba when the Pan American flying boat he was travelling on had an unexpected layover in Jamaica to repair damaged pontoons. In these circumstances I would have been glad of the break and you would have found me on the beach sipping drinks with umbrellas in them.
Stacey took the opportunity to build relationships with local church leaders, teachers, and students to investigate the potential of pioneering high school work. The movement in Jamaica in high school and universities traces its origins back to that four day stop over. Stacey on returning to Canada sent Cathie Nicol to pioneer and nurture this embryonic work. The reasons why we should do nothing are trumped by the call of God to do something.
Many of the things that limit us are self imposed. One of the key things that often deflects us from making the most of the moment is believing that the key opportunity will present itself when the difficulty is past. We look forward to a time when the war is over, freedom has been granted, the journey can resume, the pandemic is past, the crisis no more or our circumstances are favourable and our resources greater. Whereas faith, on the other hand, looks for the opporchancity in the present. What we do today always matters. Thinking tomorrow will have greater opportunities is foolishness. Although when we get there we may discover it does but that is for then not now.
Today is a day I have been looking forward to for some time. I saw the surgeon who was very pleased with my CT scan and was sufficiently confident in my progress to remove the external fixator. This was an interesting procedure to witness involving bolt cutters and pliers but is a great relief to be released. After almost 12 weeks my leg feels incredibly light without it. I will see the doctor again in his office but that should be my last visit to the hospital. I came through the doors at the end of my seventh visit and felt pretty emotional. It was quite the experience to be able to sit in the front of the car on the way home.
My leg is still non weight bearing, I have an air cast boot in the interim which at least I can take off when I am sleeping or sitting and will have significantly more comfort and freedom. I am, however back in a new holding pattern, waiting for another appointment, to have a custom walking boot made for me to move on to the next stage. Being a patient takes patience.
Today I am thankful for healing in my bones, for the fixator doing its job and progressing to the next phase of recovery. I am grateful for all who pray and continue to encourage through this experience.
I am conscious that we are all moving through stages of different kinds of recovery. I am hopeful that in this next phase we might see the possibilities through the constraints and will determine to make the most of each day.
I would like to follow in the footsteps of those of vision and faith who have gone before but I know I might just as easily be the guy on the beach with the cold drink, frustrated by the flight delays, annoyed by the flies and complaining about restricted movement.
I cannot run right now. So today I will hop a long, looking for divine opporchancity. 🙂
Psalm 81 today is a song of Asaph, giving thanks for the exodus from Egypt and warnings against idolatry, stubbornness and hardness of heart. It ends with a line that is God’s promise to a faithful people
“But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (81:16)
Some of the best and purest wild honey can be discovered in clefts and crannies on rock faces and in caves. The sweetest substance found in some hard places.
It is a reference to part of Moses Song in Deuteronomy as he reflects on all the Lord has done for the people through the Exodus to the Promised Land.
“He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag,” (32:13)
In both cases there is an allegorical interpretation to a literal truth that the Lord provides what is best for his people. Whatever blessings I count are not the result of happenstance, good fortune or my own cunning plans, they flow from the grace and goodness of God.
I first came across the phrase in a Brian McGlynn song when I was a student working at camp. I do not remember much of the song but I remember the chorus 30 years later.
“There is honey in the Rock my brother,
Honey in the rock for you,
Leave your sins for the blood to cover,
There’s honey in the rock for you”
I offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of the lyrics but the sentiment had an impact on me then and it still does today.