Crutches

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Psalm 11:8 AKJV

Growing up I had the strange desire to have to use crutches. When my
dad broke his ankle, my brothers and I took turns playing with the
crutches. Strange things we want as kids...I wanted to have to wear a
cast haha, I wanted glasses (overrated, as my brief experience
resulted in a lost pair of glasses I paid for myself grrr), and I
wanted braces (yet another experience I don't miss but I often
consider to further perfect my smile haha). But now as an adult and
having had to use them myself after a foot injury and the ugly boot
that ensued...crutches are a blessing and a curse all at once.

I guess I'm not meant to find that devotion I wrote...bummer. Anyway,
I have had the tendency in life to seek guidance from others. As a
consequence of that, I tend to get dependent and reliant that those
people will always be a resource for me. God ALWAYS has a way of
snatching the crutches back from me. You see the downside to using
crutches for too long is that you become dependent on them, so much
that you get comfortable and complacent where you are. You stop
challenging and pushing yourself to do better, until you get into a
position where you feel stuck. Ah yes, in the past, I got to that
place quite often. It was like finally one day God got tired of me
and told me enough was enough and started snatching the crutches
away--the people I went to in order to seek Him, instead of praying
and going to Him for myself. Isn't that why Jesus died, so that we
are no longer separated from the Father? There is no longer a need
for sacrifices--well maybe sacrificing time here and there to truly
spend that time with God.

And it would happen that either that person who had become my crutch
would say something I didn't agree with, hurt my feelings, or offend
me in some way. Then I would go back to God for myself. Now I
recognize it is the same thing happening again, some people had become
my crutches in Charleston or over the years. Now that I have left, so
have the crutches, and I am learning to walk on my own again, except
this time hand in hand with God.

Maybe a valued friend or mentor has recently left their coveted
position in your life and like me, it has left you confounded,
confused, and in disbelief. Rest assured, God's hand is stretched out
to you in order for you to get through, but this time He wants you to
come to Him for yourself, beyond the veil. I realize crutches are
only supposed to support you in a time of weakness. But how do you
know that your legs are strong enough until you try to walk without
them?

"Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the
age."" Matthew 28:20 NLT