E.23 — How Cerebral Palsy Has Helped My Walk with God
Season 3: Episode 2
How Cerebral Palsy Has Helped My Walk with God
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In this episode you will learn:
How to “Boast in your weakness” like Paul did
Becoming vulnerable and authentic
What it means to Find God in Difficulty
Episode length: 15:56
Transcript
What Do We Do With Weakness?
Hi and welcome to season three of God-sized dreams in bite-sized chunks. I am your host and I'm so grateful to have you with us today. I am going to be talking about something that is vulnerable, something that's real, and something that perhaps everybody can relate to and that is how my physical disability has helped my walk with God. Now maybe you don't have a physical disability. Maybe you have dealt with a learning disability or an emotional difficulty that's been challenging. For you. Whatever it is, I find that these things are relatable whether or not they are the same things that we have or there's something different.
What I want you to do today though, is imagine yourself as somebody that maybe you don't want to perhaps Imagine yourself as, and that's somebody who deals with weaknesses. So today we're going to be talking about our weaknesses. So let's jump in. So I was born with cerebral palsy, and that is a condition that affects my muscle control. So it affects one side of my body, my right arm, my right leg. And what is done is it's made difficult, challenging things of my daily tasks. So because of that, I've had a very different kind of approach to life, and sometimes it made it so that my approach was challenging. Sometimes my approach made me think of things in different ways. But if you have something in your own life, you know what this is like? You know what it is like to have to go about something different than what is considered the norm. And so because of that, we're often freaked out that we're possibly doing something different from the norm, when in reality, God is trying to bring us into a place of understanding his grace for the moment. And I want to talk about those places in us that we feel very challenged by we feel like oh my goodness if only people knew. And so let's talk about that. And let's talk about that in frame with a particular verse, which or I have been getting my concepts and my ideas about this.
Paul says I'm very aware of my weaknesses and because I'm aware of my weaknesses, I can tell you what my weaknesses are, and I can tell you how Christ has been made perfect through them.
This is second Corinthians 12 eight through 10 It says “concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And God said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me therefore, I take pleasure and infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. And I've been chewing this verse over perhaps my whole life and at one point, I think somebody said that this was a life verse over me and as I've been chewing this over, I found that it's made me more and more challenged every time I chew it over.
But let's talk about the reasons why it's challenging and that is predominantly and this is our point number one is that we are so interested and so invested in our culture of with looking strong in our culture, even though we are knowing that God is the One Who who is doing the work through us. We still have this need to look strong. And that idea of looking strong in our own strength is so paramount to what it is to be in our culture. But what Paul says here is that he's saying that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. And then he says something that I still am quite challenged by and it says that he boasts in his infirmities. If you're anything like me, that's a phrase that I'm just I can't necessarily wrap my head around. But the truth of the matter is, boasting in my weakness means that Christ is magnified through me. What does it mean to boast about your weakness? What does it mean to be more aware of the infirmity of the weakness that is at work within you, so that Christ can rest upon us? I think what it means is that we don't pretend it's not there. There is a kind of this misconception. I think that the way forward and face is to say over and over again, I don't have this “I don't have this.” I don't have this. I don't think that that's what Paul's saying here. I think actually, what Paul is saying is that Paul says I'm very aware of my weaknesses and because I'm aware of my weaknesses, I can tell you what my weaknesses are, and I can tell you how Christ has been made perfect through them.
Christ is made strong through them because he says at the very end of that verse in verse 10, it says, For when I am weak, I am strong. And so boasting in our weaknesses is this idea that we're not willing to compromise in the truth of our situation. But we're also recognizing the second half of that truth, that Christ is strong when I am weak. It's something that we don't like to look at. We don't like to look at our weaknesses. We don't like to be challenged by them. We don't like to think the possibility we're at a disadvantage either in our culture or how people look at us. But what Paul is saying is I boast in my infirmities, I'm boasting in them because I know that the power of Christ is resting upon me at that moment. You know, I want to challenge you to consider the places where maybe you are trying to hide your weaknesses. Maybe you were trying to pretend that they're not there or to make them look better than they actually are. What are those places it doesn't necessarily have to be a physical disability like mine? It could be things that you feel like there's a genetic thing. You know, sometimes I kind of laugh because of the genetic you know, what we get mixed up with genetically. We just can't help it. So maybe there's a genetic thing, something that you just don't like about your body. Maybe it's something that is like a learning disability or a mental health issue. I want you to look at those things this week.
Number 2 - Becoming Vulnerable
And I want you to consider what it means to boast in that not in a way that makes the weakness the point, but in a way that makes Christ power. The point. I think we need to learn how to be more vulnerable. And that's really point number two. The way that Cerebral Palsy has helped me in my walk with God. It has taught me how to be vulnerable, and it has taught me how to be authentic. So many times I think, because we're trained to be perfect, we're trained to appear a certain way. And we actually ended up degrading the person that God has made us to be. God wants us to be authentic. He wants us to be personable.
And there's this verse and Luke and I just love this verse, Luke 2:52, where it says that Jesus grew in strength and in favor with both I'm sorry, in wisdom and favor with both God and man. In other words, there was a point where Jesus was less wise and less favored than he was at later points in his life. And it's so interesting to me because it means that Jesus just like me, grew up. And just like me, he learned how to add wisdom to his life, just like me. He learned what it was to add favor to his life. And because he learned these things, he didn't they didn't sin because Jesus we know was sinless.
It's okay to go through the process of learning. It's okay to go through the process of struggling with something. And it's okay to go through the process of processing what it means to grow. Sometimes we think that if we're not instantly wise or instantly favorable, that we must be in sin. And that's not true because Jesus grew in wisdom. And he grew in favor. So what happens is that oftentimes, we need the favor of God to cause us to be more authentic, more relatable, more favored by people. And so consequently, we are learning how to be honest, real, and forthright regarding the things in our life that maybe make us different, maybe make us a little bit. Make us feel like we really need the grace of God in our life. Those things are really the places where we are adding favor to our life.
No 3 - Finding God in Difficulty
The third and final one that I want to talk to you about is what it's like to find God in places that are incredibly difficult. Cerebral palsy is incredibly difficult and the older I get the more aware I am of it. And I think we all have those moments. We all have those things in our life that were like this is incredibly difficult, and I'm feeling completely incapable of doing the thing that I need to do.
There was a man named Brother Lawrence and if you ever get the chance to read this book, practicing the presence of God, I highly recommend it. It's a very, very short and little thing. It's only a couple of bucks on Amazon. But Brother Lawrence was a monk and he had a physical infirmity in his legs and it made it difficult for him to walk. But because he was in charge of the kitchen, he had to go and get groceries every I think every month or every week down, had to take a boat to go get the groceries and the boat made him really unstable and unable to really walk very well. And every single time he had to do this, he had to rely on the Lord to get them through it.
And I found that really well because I've had many, many times in my life where I said to the Lord, Lord, there is no way physically that I can do this. And just like the book, Hinds feet and high places the Lord gives me the strength to do it. And you know, as you think about those things, what are the things in your life that you're having to cry out to the Lord about over and over and over again? It's not that the Lord doesn't want to heal you is that sometimes in the process of healing, he's wanting to build other things in you. And so while we're looking at healing, and we're saying God, I want to be healed. At the same time, we can look at the things that he's wanting to build in our character in that process. And and so what is it that he wants to build in our character? For me, what I found is that I was really reliant on the Lord, more reliant. than perhaps most people because I was physically challenged so many times, and I constantly found myself and still to this day, constantly find myself crying out, Lord, I need your help. Lord, I need your help. I need your help. And he always comes through for me, guess what that develops in me a reliance on the Lord that I can do the thing that God has called me to do. You see the things that have really challenged us the things that have been really difficult for us. All of those things are things that bring God His glory, it brings God strength and power through our lives. You know, let me read this first view again, and hopefully this time you can frame it in the things that I've said today. Paul says concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And God said to me, My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, more gladly I will rather boast of my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Again, that's Second Corinthians 12 eight through 10. I just want to pray for you real quick when we conclude this podcast today because I really feel like there's many of you out here are resonating with this story. You're resonating with what it means to feel weak in a particular way.
And so while we're looking at healing, and we're saying God, I want to be healed. At the same time, we can look at the things that he's wanting to build in our character in that process. And and so what is it that he wants to build in our character? For me, what I found is that I was really reliant on the Lord, more reliant. than perhaps most people because I was physically challenged so many times, and I constantly found myself and still to this day, constantly find myself crying out, Lord, I need your help.
Prayer
And I just want to pray right now in Jesus name that Father God that you would reach out to these viewers, you would reach out to these listeners God, and that you would cause them Lord Jesus to come into a more perfect awareness of your grace being sufficient for them for your strength being made perfect in their life. Where Jesus I pray that any place where we have weaknesses that we would learn how to boast in them we learn Father God, how to be vulnerable, and we learn Lord Jesus, how to rely upon you in ways that are greater than we could ever imagine. I pray for people whose spirits and hearts are really stirred after hearing this today. And they just ask in the name of Jesus Christ, that you would really touch them Father God with a power of Your presence to really know that they are in a safe place with their weaknesses with you that they don't have to hide their weaknesses, that they can feel honest and vulnerable before you with their weaknesses. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.
Hey, listen, guys. I just want to say thank you again for listening as you know, we have Daily Grow a monthly subscription box that I really want to pay point your attention to. What's happened for me is that because I deal with different things, physical things, I feel like I have to track more things. Maybe you have things that you need to track in your own life. Maybe there's things like water intake. Or vitamins or exercise are different things in your physical body that it helps to track. This part of why I started daily grow is because I wanted you to have a daily devotional while also being able to daily grow and the different things that God's doing in your mind, your soul and your body. This is helping you with your family life, your school life, whatever you may be doing, and I just really hope that you would check it out. Again, that's Angela meer.com A nge la mm is MIT e r.com. You guys have a blessed day. Thanks.