Real life is what we are living, just like you my friend!

Have you ever felt powerless, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unqualified, inapt, disabled. Hold that thought! The word in the dictionary for these adjectives is crippled!

We are so dependent upon things, routines, or circumstances that we become crippled when they are not readily available. There’s no doubt each and everyone one of us has been in this situation at one time or another. But when we become powerless or ineffective due to the change that faces us, what do we do about it? How do we compensate?

This week a Peruvian friend of ours, Martin, took Don’s laptop downtown Lima for us to have it cleaned and some general maintenance completed. Don became totally inefficient and as he said, he felt like he was cut off from the world, he’s frustrated that he cannot accomplish his daily routines of checking on finances, news, and friends. He stored so much information on his computer that he finds he is now incompetent even in such things as locating some phone numbers and passwords. He can’t even lose a game of computer chess! The projects that he has been working on, Lumps of Clay and Help from Above, are in his documents file. He feels as though this time without his computer is lost time. When his computer was returned, he plugged it in, brought up his home page, and found it wasn’t the same as it used to be. After a few stressful minutes he ‘found’ his old home page and the comforts of being back in the saddle returned. In the next moment he was feeling crippled again. Access to any program or document was unattainable. The stress continued to build. The answers were probably just a click away, but he was crippled. He needed to find the resources to provide him access to his files. It was there all the time, readily available, but he needed to know answers to the 5 questions, where, what, why, when, and how. So it is with all of life.

What has he learned from this? Hard copy backup of information could help with some of the dilemma. Rather than be depressed or discouraged, he turned to reading as a way of using his time wisely. He reviewed the material already written for one of the projects. He spent more time in meaningful discussions. In short, he compensated by using other resources. He assessed his dilemma and made some decisions to help avoid a future time such as this. It’s amazing how dependent we have become on some things. Years ago we didn’t have the conveniences of today but we also didn’t have the problems of today.

What cripples you today? How have you learned to deal with or counteract the problem? Someone who is physically crippled learns to compensate so that they may live a full, productive life. They become effective and efficient, capable and competent all over again! That is, IF they use the resources available to them.

With the Word of God as our resource, we can find verses a-plenty to provide us with all we need. My favorite is found in Philippians and you know it as well as I do….. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We do not ever need to feel crippled. We are complete in Him. He is all I need, Jesus is all I need.