Faith in the Fog

This morning I woke up and couldn’t feel my hand. I thumped it a couple of times and felt no pain. This has happened before, the result of an old Army injury. When I was a Lieutenant in the 82^nd Airborne Division I had a particularly nasty jump in which the wind blew me backwards and I did six rear somersaults upon landing. Painful. When I stopped I laid there and tried to feel all my limbs. I wiggled my toes, moved my legs, and moved my arms. My left arm was on fire. I thought for sure I’d broken it, but I rotated my head to look at my arm and was surprised to see that it looked fine. I assumed an internal break somewhere. I untangled myself and put my parachute into my aviator’s kit bag (big parachute bag) and started to head back to my unit.

The tingling in my arm eventually went away. When I went to a medic and asked him what I should do about it, he said there was nothing I could do unless I wanted surgery. It didn’t bother me that much. However, now whenever I tap my left elbow against anything hard, fire shoots up from my elbow to my pinky finger and I wince in pain. Whenever I sleep on it wrong, I awake to a “dead arm.” I guess that is part of the deal of being an Army vet.

But today as I woke up, I couldn’t help but think that my arm represented something different. My constant traveling and ministry of late has left me a bit cut off in my prayer time. Although I am very much a part of the body, I have become numb. I have lost a connection with the Holy Spirit that convicts and speaks and does that thing of transformation to become more like Christ.

John 15:5-8 ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

I think you can see where I’m going with this. No matter the worries of fund raising, or support raising, preaching, teaching, exhorting, encouraging or visiting people in hospitals, if I am not in tune with the Father through his Son, then I am not bearing fruit. Because anything that is not done in faith is sin. (Romans 14:23).

Here is my prayer, maybe you are experiencing the same thing. I encourage you to join me.

Father, I repent from my sin and long for that closeness with you. Thanks for the “dead arm” of a reminder that I cannot bear fruit apart from You. Allow me to draw close daily so that I may keep the proper perspective on You.

All for Your Glory!

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Tags: Getting back in the vine

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under I AM SECOND. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.