Friday, September 12, 2003
Friday, September 12, 2003
So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them
for building up the church.
Several years later the doctor's daughter and son-in-law were killed in an auto accident. The
doctor's ten-year-old granddaughter was left an orphan. He took her in. One day the child was
stricken with a crippling and incurable condition. The doctor learned there was a young doctor in
the Midwest who had been getting excellent results in the treatment of this particular disease. He
took his granddaughter to see the doctor.
The young physician was lame. He was the deformed baby into whose mouth the older doctor
had breathed 35 years before. Because of his own infirmity, the young doctor had specialized in
this crippling disease. The treatment on the older doctor's grandchild was successful and the
little girl was returned to normal health.
It is not rare at all that a doctor with a deformed leg should specialize in crippling diseases and
even become a star in his or her field. Such things happen all the time. When a person has an
area of deficiency, they will often realize the many blessings God has given to them. Their
disadvantage becomes a tremendous asset.
(1 Corinthians 14.12
NRSV)
Newspaper columnist George Plagenz once told the story of a young doctor who delivered a
baby into a poverty-stricken family in Montana. The child had one cruelly deformed leg. He also
had difficulty breathing. "The other children will call him 'Limpy'," the doctor thought. "His life will
be miserable. If I don't do anything for his breathing, he will die. Wouldn't that be better?" he
asked himself. Then he remembered his Hippocratic oath and began blowing into the baby's
mouth. Soon the child's lungs were acting normally and he gave his first cry.
Lord Jesus, you died that I may live. Help me to focus on what I can do to share your kingdom of
love. Amen.
