God has been teaching me powerfully in my heart something that I am going to title, “Cut the Rope.” It is time for many of us to cut the rope as I had learned while I was in the hospital for back surgery—not being overwhelmed with certain situations or circumstances that I was facing.
While I was watching the television, a woman, in prime condition was sharing what happened to her right before the Olympics. She had been riding her bike and for a second had stood up on her bike to get a better view of everything but the next thing she knew, she woke up in the hospital, paralyzed. She had no idea that a truck had struck her and suddenly, her whole career was over. Here she was feeling overwhelmed and began to share her story. As I watched and listened, I began to identify with her. She talked about what she went through and how she eventually was able to go home. The therapist said, “You’re going to have a real tough time with depression.” She did, but then one day while sitting in her wheelchair, she looked up and saw a plane flying overhead which excited her. Then she decided, “That’s what I want to do with my life. I want to be a pilot.” Her mom, dad and everyone laughed at her, but she made an appointment for flying lessons anyway. When she showed up for her lessons with a cast on and couldn’t use her feet, everyone made fun of her, except for one person who was behind the counter. He said, “If you want to learn, I’ll teach you how to fly.” So she hopped over to the plane and got in. The trainer said to her, “But in order to fly, you have to use your feet.” She started laughing and said, “I can't move my feet.” He said, “Well, how are you going to be a pilot?” And she said, “Don’t worry about that. Let’s just go.”
When they were up in the air, she took over the controls and he instructed her to head towards the mountain. As she was heading towards the mountain, she flew over the exact place where her accident occurred and started to cry. When she landed, she knew in her heart what God wanted her to do. And a fire began to burn inside. She wanted to be a pilot but she had a broken body; but she was still determined.
And so with time, she began to try and walk, going from chair to chair, from wall to wall until she began to walk. Eventually she was able to walk down the street by herself, so she gradually started taking more flying lessons and then passed her basic exam and then her twin-engine test. She even got so good that she began to fly upside down and passed that pilot’s test. Eventually, she became an instructor, and then a commercial pilot. As I listened to the end of her interview, she made this comment that changed everything in my heart. She said, “I’ve got a broken body, but I don’t have a broken spirit.” At that point, I realized that I had a broken spirit.
That statement absolutely devastated my life because I’m the kind of guy who helped build the church, the chandeliers and did a lot of the framing. My whole life has been centered on building homes and churches and traveling and doing all these type of things. I can do it; I am physically strong. I don’t need help. I can carry my own bags and I can do this and I can do that. But now I can’t do it. I can’t even put my socks on. When I heard this woman on the television say, “I have a broken body,” I was now able to identify with that. And so, I felt like a cripple—handicapped.
When I went to the mountain retreat recently, The Lord spoke to me, “Stephen, you have to cut the rope. You have to cut this attitude that your body is not broken, because it’s your spirit that is critical right now. Although your body is broken, it doesn’t mean you have to have a broken spirit.” When this attitude takes over, I can become very angry. I don’t want to be angry, but I have a prideful attitude that says, “I can do it. I don’t need anyone’s help.” But I can’t do it and so I get really flustered and people find that hard to understand. I realize then that I don’t have a sweet spirit. And so finally I said, “Okay, God, this is what You want, so I will cut the rope. I have a broken body and I want to have a sweet spirit.” I can’t do what I used to and want to do. I can take a walk with my wife, but it has to be on flat ground. I used to be able to climb mountains, but I can’t do it anymore. I used to be able to put the chains on the car, but I can’t anymore. I have to let people help me. I know in my heart that if I had a broken body but a great heart and a great spirit, people would listen to me because it’s not my body—it’s my spirit inside me that is ministering to their hearts. So many people are devastated because they look at their marriage, their relationships or at a particular thing that is happening in their lives and they think, “I’ve lost hope.” We should never lose hope.
For some, having a broken spirit may be a broken body, a broken marriage, a broken job, a broken dream, or a broken business that didn't work out. What about the things that we thought we could accomplish, but couldn’t? Maybe we feel like people are holding us back and we are angry with that? We have to cut that rope. We have to let it go.
Try to picture for a second that you are in a storm with God—you have no idea where you are going. You have no idea if you are going up or down but you have to come to remember that if God is in it, you are going to make it and you are going to be fine. You are in a little boat called brokenhearted—broken body. “I don’t like this.” Then cut the rope. “I don’t like my wife and so maybe I’ll get a divorce.” Cut the rope; give it to God. “I don't want to build a relationship with my kid.” Cut the rope. You have to cut it. The little ships we carry behind us are our way out of responsibility and relationships. Cut them. In other words, surrender everything to God. Cut the rope and trust God totally with your life. That is what He is saying, and that’s what so hard.
God will use storms in our lives to direct us and to chasten us. He did that when He dealt with a rebellious prophet, Jonah in the book of Jonah. He chastened him. When the disciples were told by Jesus to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee in a boat, they did not trust God because they were so afraid of sinking during the storm. Jesus sent them and told them that they were to meet Him on the other side. How could they possibly sink? But they didn’t believe it and so God had to correct them. God will use storms in our lives to challenge us and to direct us.
While headed for Italy as a prisoner, the ship, that the apostle Paul was on, crashed in front of the island of Malta. As Paul gathered a bundle of sticks to build a fire, he got bitten by a serpent. All the natives were saying, “This man who is a murderer, is going to die because he has now been judged by God. The storm didn’t kill him but the serpent is going to kill him” What is the point that I am making here? The point is that Paul got bitten and when he didn’t die, the Bible says that everyone changed their minds. Now instead of saying, “He’s going to die,” they said, “This guy was a god.” And so while he was there, he was able to heal a leading citizen of the island and was able to bring the whole village to Christ. Was it worth it? Yes!
What about those times when we are far away from home and all of a sudden the freeway is closed so are forced to stay elsewhere overnight and so we get angry? How do we know that God is not in it, that we are going to lead somebody to Christ or that we are going to meet our future wife or husband? How do we know what God is doing? Or how do we know when all of a sudden our child calls and wants us to do this and do that so we finally give in, that God will put it all together? One can never know. We have an opportunity to come to a place where we begin to trust God in everything we do. When the apostle Paul said, “I’m being persecuted.” God said, “I’m going to take care of you.” Are we ready to get rid of this control? Are we ready to give it up? It’s a hard thing to do.
“Stephen, give it up. Your flesh is keeping you back from all that you want to do. Cut it. Let it go.” So my question to you, “What are you hanging onto right now? What are the things that God has been speaking to you about? What one thing do you want to hang on to because it’s a way out of a certain relationship or a way out of a particular area or a way out of a business transaction or a way out of difficult situations? You need to face them and deal with them instead of thinking, “Hey, I can get out of it.”
We have all these little boats. We don't want to admit it. We don’t want to share with other people. We don’t even confess it. We know what we are hanging on to in our hearts because we always have a way out. It doesn’t make a difference who we are or how committed we are. There is always a way out. Every man, every woman has a way out. When we finally admit that we’re serious, really serious about changing our lives, our marriage, the direction of the church, and the direction of this world,” then we are going to have to do something very hard—trust God with all our hearts. We are going to have to cut the rope and we are going to have to ride out the storm. And we are going to have to believe that God is in the storm and that God will speak to us in the storm, and He will get us through that storm.
We have to figure out why has this storm has come into our lives. Lord, are You trying to correct us? Are You trying to discipline us? Are You trying to lead us and guide us and direct us, or God, are You just wanting to get down to the nitty gritty and take us down to the bottom of the water, like Jonah, and try to get our attention because we are so stubborn that we would not listen to anybody? Those questions and answers are between us and God.
As for me, I have hung on to this for too long. So I have made a commitment—a commitment to have joy in my heart. I will cut the rope. I realized that I couldn’t get out of it. I cannot be what you want me to be or what anybody else wants me to be. I am healed, but just like you, there are things in my heart, pain in my life, situations that I hang on to, things that I don’t talk about, dreams that I have, ambitions that I hope to achieve and has been broken. What do I do with them? I have to make a choice and that choice has to be God.
The most dangerous thing in the whole world is an unbroken Christian—a Christian who feels that he doesn’t need anything. We need broken people and broken lives. We need people to know that they have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we need people who can ask for help when they can’t do things themselves because we all don’t need any more pride or any more false humility. What we need are people who are people—we are who we are by the grace of God and we don’t have to be anything else. And so we need help. As I had said earlier, I am broken, but not in spirit. And you are not to be broken in spirit. We can do whatever we have to do by the grace of God. But we have to make that choice.
