Medically Impaired, Divinely Perfect!

Medically Impaired, Divinely Perfect!

Rom 5: 6-10, Heb 10:14

My Doctor, Sylvia, had me go in for a number of tests including several scans. Then from the results of all these tests, she diagnosed the cause of the problem: ‘this and that are a bit different from the normal…’.

Now, several years later, as I showered down one evening after lectures I found myself pondering about the diagnosis, and in desperation I asked, ‘O God, why didn’t you make me a normal person? Why sub-perfect when I could have been made perfect?’

I wanted an answer, but I wasn’t prepared for the way in which it came. God answered me with a question, a very simple question, simple but deep. It kept me quiet, quiet to this day. In an instant all feelings of not matching up to the ‘standard’ melted away.

It was a question I didn’t even bother to answer; a question that answered my question so perfectly. It was a question that answered more than it asked; a question that put nothing but a smile on my face.

Today so many people struggle with a lack of self-worth because they may have been born medically ‘sub-normal’. Many struggle with one disease condition or the other: asthma, sickle-cell, bone diseases, skin disorders, allergies, colour-blindness, mental disorders…you name them. For others, it’s a real battle trying to accept themselves as they are. They would rather they weren’t so talkative…or too quiet on the other hand. Or too fat, or too slim; too fair…too dark; too tall…too short; and on and on and on they go.

It reminds me of two people in the Bible, Moses and Zacchaeus.

Moses first. It is believed that he was a stammerer. [Ex. 6:30 – but Moses said to the Lord, ‘Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharoah listen to me?’ (NIV)]

Yet it was never mentioned or even implied anywhere in the Bible until he had to face Pharoah with the Word of the Lord. Then Moses himself laid bare that fact. Up until then, I believe Moses felt comfortable with himself.

Why was he intimidated now? Why was his confidence gone now? He had lived most part of his life with the Pharoah, why was he so self-conscious now?

Let’s consider Zacchaeus too. [Luke 19:1-4 – Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. (NIV)]

He was a short guy. However it never interfered with his life. He did his job well-unscrupulously well. He walked around with no care because he was wealthy. However, his ‘impairment’ was made prominent only when he determined to see Jesus. Why was this so?

In both scenarios, I see people whose ‘impairments’ were magnified because of others. Moses thought of Pharoah and the Israelites and suddenly saw how badly he stammered. Zacchaeus had to stretch and stretch and eventually climb a tree to see Jesus, not because he was short, but because others stood in-between him and his focus.

However, at the end of the day, both men were considered ‘perfect’ for divine missions.

Many ‘others’ can make us see our ‘impairments’ so prominently. Your ‘others’ can be a medical report that makes you understand that you are not like all other ‘normal’ people. It can be the media that gives you a picture of the ‘perfect’ man or woman, and makes you understand that you have a long way to go. It can be the comments or looks people pass at you as you walk along, that makes you understand that you are not accepted where ‘correct’ people are.

But if you find yourself in this state, God asks you today what He asked me that day under the shower: ‘Tell me, who determines what is normal?’

Let this question sink in whenever you are tempted to complain about yourself. You’ll soon find yourself smiling as you say, ‘Why, You of course!’

It is He indeed!

Rom 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. (NIV)

You have been called; by faith you have been justified. Hence, despite all your physical/medical challenges you are a glorified being in God’s sight!

Remember, to God you are perfect as you are!