You Ain't Kiddin'!

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;” (2Co 3:5 AV)

 

How true this is!  The older I get the more I realize just how true Paul’s statement is.  He was referring directly to performing ministry.  But the principle applies in all areas of life.  This truth does not become real until we are pushed beyond our limits.  We do not realize how dependent on God we really are until all our strength or abilities are sapped from how souls and bodies.  When we come to the end of our rope and we do not think we can go any further, the grace of God becomes very real.  When our spirits or emotions are on the precipice of total malfunction, and somehow we can hold it together, we finally come to the conclusion that God is sufficient for our needs no matter the situation.  The peace of God, which does pass all understanding, is experienced and known by living through it.  As I wrote, the older I get, the more real the above truth becomes.

My wife has had some interesting OR experiences.  One such occurrence was at the birth of our second son.  The first was an emergency Caesarian Section so the time it took for them to start the procedure and the birth of our firstborn was mere minutes.  The second, however, was planned.  This meant all that went on during the first would also be part of the second.  But in a much more methodical way and over a longer period of time.  The second birth did not start out the best.  They had a time of it trying to put the epidural in.  They finally inserted it a bit higher in her spine than was usual.  No pain from her chest down.  What that also meant was there was no feeling at all from her chest down.  This included her lungs.  She could not feel herself breathe.  In and out she naturally breathed, but she couldn’t feel herself breathe.  Slowly she worked herself into a panic.  She thought she was suffocating.  We tried to give her common sense truths that would dispute how she felt.  If she was suffocating, she would have passed out.  There is condensation on her oxygen mask.  There are flutters of things around her mask.  She can feel her breath pass over her tongue and lips.  Still, she thought she wasn’t breathing.  It wasn’t until I pointed her to the monitors and made her watch the white line that measure respiratory function that she finally began to calm down a bit.  She felt powerless.  She felt helpless.  She felt as though her life was totally and completely out of her control.  It wasn’t until she yielded to the care of the OR team and her doctor that she relaxed.  When she realized she was indeed powerless to help herself, she was able to yield to others who would get her through.

I, for one, am so glad I trusted Christ as my Savior and I can go to the Father at any time and seek His help to get me through whatever I may face in life.  I am also humbled by the peace and strength of the Father that sustains me and causes me to profit in the deepest waters of life.  I can agree with Paul that I cannot navigate life without the LORD.  I can agree with Paul that if anything positive comes from a trial of faith it was completely and wholly the LORD’s doing.  I can agree with Paul that if He asks me to go through deeper waters still, the presence and strength of God are all-sufficient.  I am reminded of the third verse from Amazing Grace; “Through many dangers, toils and snare, I have already come, 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”