Invincible No Longer

As a kid I always liked the story of Moses as he sent his warriors out to fight the Amalekites. During the battle Moses, Aaron, and Hur were on top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites would be winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites would gain control. But eventually Moses’ hands got tired, so Aaron and Hur held them up for him, and the Israelites won. (Exodus 17:8-16)

Moses needed help…and so did I last weekend.

Flashback:
In the spring of 2007 I received an invitation to do a workshop at the April 2008 Women’s Ministries Convention in Appleton, Wisconsin. I answered an immediate yes because I love doing those workshops.

A couple of months later came my diagnosis.

What to do.

I heard the grim prognosis and wondered if I’d even be able to speak by then. The organizers of the convention also heard my news, so they contacted me and asked what I wanted to do. I didn’t know.

Then my friend Ruth (in whose home we were living while Jim was doing our remodel) had an idea. “Say yes,” she urged me. “Then if you’re having a hard time communicating when April comes, I’ll be your voice.”

Wow! What a lift.

So, I said yes.

Now fast forward. The conference was last weekend (April 18-19).

The topic for my workshop was “Bumps in the Road: Managing the tough things in life.” I went through the writings of my blog and worked to summarize the lessons God has been teaching me.

A few days before the conference I e-mailed the workshop director and asked how many to expect in my session. I needed to make handouts. She indicated that we could probably expect about 70 women, but that there were even more chairs in the room, so I might want to be safe and make handouts for 110.

Thirty minutes before the session, the flow of women began. We ran out of chairs, and handouts, and even floor space, as about 170 ladies crowded into the room.

Remember my entry called “Two Tracks”? That was my premise. Everybody always has something hard and something to be thankful for in their life. I summarized all of the writing of my blog into six bits of advice…three for managing the “left rail” and three for celebrating the “right rail.”

Tips for managing the left rail:
1) Let the hard things push you toward God.
2) Realize that your view is limited—God’s is unlimited.
3) Let yourself go through the grieving process.

Tips for celebrating the right rail:
1) Celebrate that God is trustworthy. He’s everything you need.
2) Celebrate the Body of Christ. Be thankful for those around you.
3) Celebrate that God made you special. He has a good plan for you.

I did the introduction and the conclusion, and I ran the Power Point, but “my voice” (Ruth) did the rest of the talk, and she did a phenomenal job! She read the words I had written, and I threw in my two cents every now and then. It was fun, and the ladies loved it.


Looking back, it is so obvious that I couldn’t have done it alone!

Ruth was my voice.
Carol helped me build my Power Point.
Jim helped me sell cookbooks afterwards. (We sold about 90 books!)
Mary Beth helped me replenish the cookbooks when we ran out.
And there were others, too, who helped with this or that.

It made me realize how much we as human beings need each other.

Unfortunately, when we’re happy, healthy, and energized we don’t always realize how much we need our friends. We’ve all seen little 2-year-olds say, “I can do it all by myself!” But I shudder when I think of how many times in my adulthood I have felt the same way. Projects, workshops, courses, even fancy meals…”I can do it all by myself!” I’ve thought (and even said!) dozens of times.

Now, I have neither the endurance nor strength to carry off things alone. Maybe it’s a gift, because now I realize that I’m no longer invincible. I never was, but I sure thought I was.

Needing help all the time is still a bit hard for me, but I’m beginning to see this as another of God’s lessons—one of those things I probably would have never learned without this illness.

When Linda and Leata offered to put new sheets on my guest beds this week, I thought of Moses. A year ago I would have said, “No thanks, I can do it later.” This time I accepted their help.



Twice a month Joy, Rita, Judy and/or Lois come clean our home. I need them.

Many others in our church are helping us. We need them.

I like the words of a Christian song, “No one of us has got it all together. But all of us together have got it all.”

I Corinthians 12:12-31 teaches this lesson beautifully. I've read that passage dozens of times before, but now I understand it!

Okay, who needs your help this week?

mm

P.S. This is funny: I even needed help blowing out my candles this week, because my "blower" doesn't work anymore! (smile)

Jim helped me with this one...




...and Reuben helped me with the other one.


(Copy the link below into your browser and you can see the video on YouTube.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msnCLKf_sb4&feature=email