I remember it clearly. I was fighting a season of heaviness. I was grieving, exhausted, and just so distracted. I work for an organization that pours into broken hearted people, and so I kept busy. But in my broken state I felt inadequate to truly help. How was I supposed to assure others it would be ok when I could barely get off the couch? I battled with myself and my feelings of inadequacy. I felt completely tapped out and dry.
As I drove towards town, I poured my heart out before God. And then I saw something. Up ahead, there was a man and a woman on the sidewalk, both in wheelchairs, traveling the steep hill towards the canal bridge. As I looked closer, I realized the first manual wheelchair was actually being pushed up the hill by the motorized wheelchair behind it. I lit up with the humor of it. But then I saw the gift of perspective God was giving me. I could see a clear picture of my place in our ministry. Of humanity.
We are all a little bit broken if we are honest. The world is a harsh place. Daily there are things that chip at our heart, hurt our feelings, dash expectations, and reconfigure dreams. But we are not alone in those hurts, and those broken places don’t disqualify us from being a help. In fact, they can be used as promotions! With the Hope of God, they can be viewed as gifts that can usher us into the inner circles of hurting people. Those painful experiences; giving weight to our words of comfort or encouragement.
Don’t wait until you are in a perfected place. That will never come. Serve others where you are. You don’t have to be whole, you just have to be present. Use your wheelchair to push another’s ahead of you up that hill. Press on together. There is community in our trials. There is validation and help.
Want to know another sweet thing about this story I noticed as I glanced in my rearview mirror? Those two, sick elders weren’t alone trekking up the hill. There was an aid in scrubs, standing alongside them... walking with them... checking their strength levels and encouraging them toward the goal. Present.
We also have an Aid with us. A perfect, ever-focused, never distracted Help. Sometimes carrying us, sometimes standing by and letting us test our endurance and strengthen our muscles. But He is there. Always. And He will help us get up any hill that He takes us to.
“Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” -Isaiah 41:10
Be Thou near to me,
Kate Foster
ARH Staff Writer
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