The Blessing of Frailty - Kimberly Dawn Rempel

In the empty church foyer on a weekday, a young woman helps a young man hobble to the reception desk.

His young frame is frail and moves slowly and awkwardly with the aid of a cane and the young woman’s supportive arm. She holds him with every step.

Slowly. Slowly, make their way across the lobby.

I can’t stop staring at the beauty of it.

It’s a beauty reveals itself in her patience. She does not hurry him, or even look around the room to gauge what others might think. She walks slowly and steadily beside him, adjusting her speed to his, adjusting herself to suit his needs. She gives.

The beauty is also in him. He moves steadily forward, completely dependent on the cane and his friend. He accepts this assistance, and moves forward. His frailty and need does not keep him at home, angry and alone. He has bravely humbled himself and accepted his limits. He does not pull away or try to resist or run ahead. He humbly accepts help.  

Both of them, I realized, had to humble themselves, each giving up their desires for something different, each accepting what is. This beauty belongs to God – their humility and acceptance and their journey together is a beautiful example of love, and I thank the Lord for the privilege of witnessing it that morning.

As they moved on and I was left with my own thoughts, I saw me and God in that arrangement. He patiently helps me in my frailty, not looking around the room or racing ahead. He stays with me, helping me in my weakness. When I refuse the help, or try to run ahead on my own, I get hurt and fall down. When I humble myself though, and accept my frailty, humbly resting on His strength, we move ahead together slowly, slowly, and steadily.

Thank you God, for loving us tenderly and faithfully.

And thank you, even for the frailty that reveals my need of you, and that teaches me to walk in your ways. Thank you for my need that draws me deeper into relationship with and dependence on you.

Kimberly Dawn Rempel helps authors market their books and expand their reach online through 1:1 coaching, editing, and book marketing.  Click here to Download her free guide, 14 Ways to Leverage Your Book  or join her Facebook Group, Marketing-Savvy Authorpreneurs HERE.

The Discomfort of Obedience by Steph Beth Nickel

Do you find it easy to identify an organization’s or an individual’s shortcomings but harder to identify what you should do to make the situation better?

Yes? Me too.

Recently I made some notes about things I’ve appreciated about Christian organizations I’ve been part of.

Different groups have different strengths. Here are some of them:

A deep desire to know God

Commitment to study the Scriptures

Efforts to facilitate unity among believers

Call to exercise gifts, abilities, and talents in the furtherance of God’s kingdom

Commitment to build up one another

Dedication to lead by example

Realization that the Lord works in each one of us individually

I also recognize some areas of concern:

A double standard (Apparently, sometimes what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander.)

Talking about one another rather than to one another

The downplaying of sin in favour of emphasizing who we are in Christ

The downplaying of who we are in Christ in favour of focusing on our sinfulness

An overemphasis on the role of emotion in worship

A rigid perspective on what it means to do things “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40)

Belief that one’s theological perspective is without error and there is nothing to learn from those who hold a different view.

Making these lists was easy, but the Lord challenged me to do more than that. He reminded me that if I’m not part of the solution, I’m part of the problem.

Speaking of a double standard … if I identify an area of concern in another, I must be willing to examine myself, see if I also fall short in this area, and ask God to show me how to live honestly and authentically. I must also be willing to respectfully address the issue out of concern for others not merely because it frustrates me.

I must encourage others to go directly to the person with whom they’re having problems. I must also set a good example by doing the same.

So many aspects of life must be held in tension. There is godly confidence that the Lord will enable us to walk in obedience when we begin to grasp that, because of Jesus, He already sees us as righteous. However, we can become prideful if we forget that it is only because of what the Saviour has done for us that this is the case.

Expressing emotion is yet another area we must seek to keep in tension. Being loved by the Creator of the universe and being called to be His own should stir our emotions. Witnessing the pain and heartache all around us should cause compassion to well up within us. I believe we must make room for individuals to express their emotions in the context of corporate worship. However, we must remember the Bible warns us that our heart is deceptive. We must measure our emotions against the truth of the Scriptures.

I didn’t intend to spend so much time on the tensions of the Christian life, but the topic of theological perspective is another area in which we must maintain tension between sound biblical doctrine and the realization that just because another believer doesn’t agree with us on every point doesn’t mean they don’t have insight and understanding that has alluded us.

Perhaps the Lord is challenging you to make some of the same commitments.

It isn’t always comfortable. It isn’t always easy. But obedience is always the right choice.