Learning Humility
"He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way."
Psalm 25:9
My friend Carole Danzig was a Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, the wife of a doctor and mother of four gifted children. Carole was also given the "thorn in the flesh" of Lou Gehrig's disease. She became a quadriplegic and endured the slow deterioration and loss of all her muscles. She typed the following words on a computer by clicking a sensor with her teeth...
"When I want something, frequently no one understands. When I know how to do something better, it doesn't matter. When I don't want to do something, I'm overruled. I cry and then I remember our Lord's words to Peter - that when he was old someone would lead him where he did not want to go."
"When I enter a roomful of people-Sunday services, for example-I always send up an arrow prayer: 'Please, Lord, don't let me drool.' But the answer is always the same. I drool. Finally this morning I could not stand it anymore. 'Lord, people will think I have lost my mind as well as my body. They will pat me on the head and talk to me as if I'm two years old.'"
"And Jesus answered, 'And how do people talk to a two-year-old? With love, with concern, with joy. Not so bad.' But I replied, 'They will talk to me in words of one or two syllables and short sentences.' Once again Jesus replied, 'You mean like "blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."'
"Oh Lord, thank You for the reminder. My drooling is a help to make me humble."
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I praise You, Lord, for the marvelous grace that sustains brothers and sisters who suffer greatly. May we learn to see our own "handicaps" as opportunities to humble ourselves so that You might lift us up.
Blessings,
Joni and Friends
www.joniandfriends.org
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