Reaching the top shelf

credit: http://worldofweirdthings.com/tag/intelligent-design/

Limitations can just be so darn frustrating!  I remember trying to buy clothes when I was a 5-foot-12-inch teenager in a world of where 5’8″ was “tall”.   My stature is one of the reasons I would choose to sit rather than stand in a group of women for a conversation, since standing typically means the discussion will be about six inches below my ears.  It’s a bit isolating….

But then, who do complete strangers turn to when they need something off the top shelf at Walmart, right? 

To put that in perspective, I once read an account of a man who was in a tragic accident and lost both of his legs. Now, I can only imagine what that would be like, and generally prefer not to, but his comment I have always remembered and was something like this:

“I figure that before my legs were amputated, I could probably do about 10,ooo things.  Without my legs, that cancels out, let’s say, 1000.  Which means that leaves 9000 things I can still do.  Let’s work with that.”

The Apostle Paul had limitations also.  His temperament notwithstanding, (it seems he was a bit of a lion), he also may have had some physical ailment with his eyes.  Here, however, we see the theme of his life:

^“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

I have a blogging buddy with cerebral palsy, The Outspoken Tulip, who types with a special attachment to her forehead.  I have another, Bold Blind Beauty, who is legally blind and gives encouragement to so many others through her writings.  Some of Jesus’ saints suffer from mental disorders of various kinds, like depression, such as Gray Clouds, Clear Skies. All of them must face the challenges of social misunderstanding, under-representation, and personal defeat, and could climb on the victimhood bandwagon.  But no, that’s not the work God has assigned for them.

Helen Keller said, 

Which, in the great scheme of things, is what we are called to be, overcomers that is. Paul, himself, calls us “more than conquerors through Him Who loved us.”  One translation puts it this way,

 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].

That victory is intended not just my own personal comfort–how shallow!  But for the benefit of so, so many others I am intended, recreated, and designed to reach out to.

Including the reach to the top shelf at Walmart!

Acts 20:24  Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Romans 8:37 Amplified Bible  Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.