Issues... Pt. 3

My pastor, Brady Boyd, came to New Life in a foreboding environment filled with scandal, culture shock, and pain.  

Since then, he has helped to transform New Life into a growing church family worth being a part of - a church family grounded on the basics: worshiping God, connecting with one another, and serving our community.  We're all still figuring it out, and like any family we have our hiccups.  But the future is bright and we're looking forward - not back.

About 10 days ago, Brady went in for open heart surgery to replace a damaged valve.  It was a "routine" procedure - but far from routine!  This is what places him in a different category in my mind - though energetic and passionate on the platform he's dealt with this core physical defect his whole life - facing various surgeries, exhaustion, and no doubt some of his own internal struggles with things like 'fairness.'  

The operation was successful, and doctors expect a full recovery in a few months time.  Read more here.  

The apostle Paul described his own struggle in Second Corinthians, chapters 11 and 12.  According to him, he was given a 'thorn in his flesh' to keep him from becoming conceited.  Although he pleaded for it to leave, it remained and God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Paul goes on to say he now delights in his weakness so that "Christ's power may rest on [him]," and proclaims:

"For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I'm reminded of a scene from Pixar's "Incredibles," a movie about superheroes.  At the height of the villain Syndrome's monologuing he reveals his plot to give super powers to the whole world - saying something like "[soon everyone will be special, and then no one will be.]"

At the heart of my desire to be a mutant superhero was wanting to be special, set apart, looked to for hope as a hero, and able to offer that salvation.  But in this world, I must embrace both sides of the coin; I am both - mutant (on the 'extra bone' level anyway) with special "out-of-alignment back abilities" - and one of the 'more unfortunate' as well.  In a way I wasn't before I'm personally aware of the state of things in our fallen world, with a physical body that is bound to its fate.

But in a way, I also get to be the hero.  As a Christian, I am set apart, able to give hope to others in the good news of Jesus, and let him do the saving.

I've so admired Brady's candor and strength as he prepared for and went through the surgery.  Like him, but to a lesser degree, I have an issue that causes discomfort with some potential physical limitations.  And like the apostle Paul, we all share a measure of the thorn that reminds us to "delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when [we] are weak, then [we] are strong."

**please continue to pray for Brady's recovery in these next weeks and months.