Monday, October 12, 2009

Our Weakness, His Strength - Columbus Day, 2009

Good Monday morning on this fine, cold Columbus Day! We had more snow last night, but it's not as cold this morning. The Rockies lost in the cold, but the Broncos won again. How did Columbus fare on this day some 500 years or so back in the day? Well, after embarking on a voyage of faith in God, he made landfall on an island down south a bit. Missing 2 continents by the way, but managing to find land just the same. Columbus didn't know the exact direction to take to get to the nearest land mass, but he had a dream and a measure of faith in God. Today, ol' Chris isn't doing so well in the press and media. Without a press secretary to field information requests and being out of circulation for some 500 years, Christopher Columbus began taking a beating in the press some years ago. I saw a headline the other day about Columbus' dark side. From my reading, any dark side came from ignorance more than intent.

Back in the day, they didn't know anything about infectious diseases, other than the symptoms and usual result. Columbus wanted to take some folks back to Europe to show them the wonders of civilization, but didn't reckon on the guests growing sick on the way back. Of course the New World natives were weak. You've done the same thing, your elders from your childhood did it to you, and theirs to them all the way back to Columbus' time and beyond. All of us have heard the sayings, "he needs more grit"; "kids these days need to toughen up"; and many others. It's much easier to blame another person's weakness than to accept responsibility that we've screwed up somewhere.

Last night I watched a news report on concussions and how they may be affecting athletes, particularly in football. I don't recall them mentioning the concussions from even minor traffic accidents, but then accident victims don't usually earn millions of dollars each year or play out their accidents on television. The research has been concentrating on football players, but I wondered if the rise in mental problems and dementia in our elderly might not be related to the profusion of traffic accidents, both minor and worse, that we live with daily. The reason I mention this is that concussion was one of those things that used to be the subject of "get tougher" thinking back in the day and even to this time. Soldiers, football players, athletes in other sports, and yes, even accident victims, have not treated concussion as a sign of our weakness, but as a call to "get tough and get back in the game!"

Just as Columbus had no knowledge of the diseases his crew carried to the New World, I wonder at the ignorance we have of brain injuries and how long it takes to recover from them. We should also wonder at how ignorant the world is of its own weakness. When we think that we are strong in our own strength, we will find it hard to give our lives to Jesus. God likes those who realize their own weakness; He can make us strong. Paul complained about his own weakness and God didn't tell him to toughen up and get back in the game. No, God said that His grace was sufficient, and that His strength was made perfect in Paul's weakness. Each of us has our own weakness; instead of complaining bitterly for relief, we might want to look for God's shining strength in that weakness. Columbus didn't know that he had condemned many to death by disease as the hordes of Europeans followed him across the ocean, but he did make possible many new nations and a place for some persecuted believers in Jesus to run to a few years later. In the world's eyes the Pilgrims and Puritans may not have been the strongest of the strong; but in God's strength, perhaps they were at that!

Happy Columbus Day!

Bucky

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