Handicapped Lives
Updated: Sep 28
TRANSCRIPT:
First number seven.
Paul writes a bit about his thorn.
These words he says.
To keep me from becoming conceited, Because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to be a thorn in my flesh.
A messenger of Satan to torment me.
Three times, I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
For my power is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest upon me.
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delighted weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The subject of handicapped lives is one that takes all of us in.
There may be some shining young Apollo here tonight who's never had a problem, but I, frankly, really rather doubt it.
I think back over my years, and I think I can honestly say, I've never known a man or woman with any sort of intimacy at all.
who did not turn out to be dealing with some kind of a handicap.
One of my favorite Scottish preachers, Alexander McLaren, made a little statement I kept open in my mind.
He said, please be kind to everyone you meet because everyone you meet is fighting a battle.
All of us struggle with handicaps, and some of us in no small degree.
And the secret of the quality of our spiritual life, oftentimes, depends upon the way that we deal with our limitations.
I think that's one of the reasons why I so greatly admire a scientist like Louis Pasteur, who, in many ways, was the father of all of our modern medicine.
We just assumed that Louis Pasteur had a very robust health with wits to work and make all of his discoveries.
And yet, you and I discover that, at the age of 46, Pasteur, suffered a debilitating stroke, and had to work with that handicap.
for the rest of his days.
And so we find a Beethoven writing music while deaf.
nd Milton, writing poetry, though blind.
And we begin to discover that, in general, some of the greatest work done on Earth has been wrought... by people with handicaps.
Now, they may have had some faults and some forables like the rest of us, that's true.
But they also had their handicaps, and many of them handicaps far more severe than many of us face.
And they dealt with them superbly.
And how they do it?
How they overcome their limitations, how they overcome their difficulties.
Guys, we're not one of us here who wouldn't like to have a little secret into that.
Even I go to the Bible and find example after example of man and woman who confirm the problem.
One of the greatest things in life, have been accomplished by folks with some terrible handicaps.
Look at Paul's thorn.
And nobody knows what Paul Thorn was.
But a lot of guesses, a lot of speculation, that it was epilepsy.
Or perhaps eye trouble, or maybe malaria, or maybe Mrs. Paul, I just threw that in to see if you were listening.
Or maybe a bed back, lots of speculation, but nobody knows what Paul's Thorn was.
I've been a lot of guests, but nobody knows for sure.
Now, rest assured that if some of us had been Paul, or if Paul had been like some of us, everybody would have known what his thorn was.
I mean, with all the letters the man wrote, if it probably been like us, everybody from Tesla and I could, the Corinth, the Colossi, to Lycaonia, to Rome would know what his thorn was.
But we don't know.
All we know is that behind the scenes, just like most of us, Paul had to wrestle with some sort of limitation that he prayed earnestly before God to escape, and that he could not, in any form or fashion, evade, and that one way or other, he had to settle down and live with it.
So you and I asked, well, Paul, how'd you do it?
How were you able to live and overcome, in spite of that great limitation?
It is a critical hour in the life of any man or woman, boy or girl.
When, for the first time, they come face to face with their handicap.
Here is some young boy, crippled, early in infancy.
And he's gone up in his early years with no idea of what's really going on in his life, nor what's really happened to him.
But sometime or other, early on in his childhood, it finally dawns on this little crippled boy that he's not like.
All the other children.
Any recognizes he's got a handicap.
And his whole spiritual, mental, physical, and social life may well depend upon how he chooses to handle it.
Here's some woman whose parents didn't understand the acritical development of a little child's emotions.
who wakes up to discover one day that something's rather wrong on the inside, and that all of his basic emotions and all of our basic feelings begin to flow along channels of suspicion and fear, distrust, and anxiety.
And he looks, she looks with envy at those people who seem to have such nicely integrated personalities, who seem to remain so tranquil and calm in the midst of great stress.
And her spiritual life, her mental health, will depend upon how she chooses to deal with that handicap.
Here's some man, who, in his youth, had all the natural ambitions for success, and now understands he'll never arrive at his desired goals.
He'll never write poetry.
He'll never be able to compose music.
He will never hold the business positions for which he so often dreamed.
And again and again, it's like he stepped on the gas, And the power just wasn't in him.
For God did not equip him with 8 subtleness or with 6.
And frankly, the 4 he's got, don't fire too well.
It's a crucial hour when a person comes face to face with their handicaps.
Here's a, here's a man who has high expectations for a noble and profitable life.
But upon whom, like some beast, from ambush, an accident, or a sickness leaps upon him, and now he's got to spend the rest of his life working with crippled machinery.
And again and again, he likes to throw in the old power in the old way, and all he does is blow a fuse.
And somehow, he's gotta face that handicap.
Moreover, there are many of us who have all sorts of limitations that lie in our personal relationships with people.
There's some here tonight, who wanted love, and missed it.
Here's a family with a little child created is a great blessing.
who instead became... an agony.
Here's a home where death severed.
A tie that was the support of that home.
Among the few things that are true about all of us is the fact that each one of us has a handicap.
Well how do we deal with it?
What's the technique?
How do we harness the grace that Paul says is sufficient?
I struggle with my thorn, he writes, three times, I prayed, and God wouldn't take it away, and now come to understand, it's in the midst of my weakness that God pours out his grace. And so how in the world can you and I harness the grace that God wants to pour in to make us victorious in the midst of all of our handicaps?
Well, in the first place, you and I look through this pass, they didn't meditate on it a bit.
In the 1st place, if we're to deal handsomely with our handicaps, we must resist the temptation toward rebellion and self pity.
And choose instead to deal in life with a very positive attitude.
You know, the initial reaction, you and I have your handicap, is rebellion, or self pity in a negative sense.
How many folks respond like Joe?
Job's wife?
Rebellion?
And she sees Job in all of his calamities, in all of his difficulties, and she advises Joe just to curse God and die, and many a handicapped person has cursed God.
However, there are many of us not quite so vehement, as Job's wife, and instead of turning to rebellion and cursing God, we just, we melt away in the midst of self pity.
And how often you and I hear people stroke their wounded spirits and say things like, If I only hadn't have this handicap, think what a great person I might have become.
And so drifting along in the dreams of their imaginations, they... they dream of what they could have been, had they not had this handicap, and they begin to feel very sorry for themselves.
That such a miserable occurrence, said, keep them from such a wonderful paradise.
Now, that's natural.
But it's not very helpful, nor practical.
attitude.
In dealing with our handicaps, if we're to experience the grace that is sufficient for us, we must be willing to realize that very few people, in fact, none of us that I know of, live through life without having some sort of limitations.
Whoever had the chance to live their full life on Earth under the ideal circumstances that they would have chosen.
A person doesn't exist.
Once, when the great violinist, O Bull, was giving a concert in Paris, one of the four strings on his violin, his A string, snapped.
And so he simply transposed the composition and finished out the concert with three strings.
Now, that's life.
They have your A string brake and have to finish out on three strings.
Now how many of us had to test that out?
It seems that some of the most thrilling parts of life lie in the ability to handle those handicaps.
I think if I could have only heard O Bull play once in concert.
With all the resources of a perfect instrument in hand.
I think if I could have hurt him only once, I would like to have hurt him that night in Paris.
When his A string broke, and without rebellion, without self pity, without surrender, he finished out the concert on three strings.
You see, as soon as a man or woman begins to view their handicaps in a positive attitude, they soon present themselves as opportunities instead of defeats.
It is a good cook who, after she has burned the dinner, or after he has burned the dinner, knows how to make a fine meal out of the leftovers.
And it's a good cook who's challenged to try.
It's a successful Christian.
who's able to say, well, I can't help it if my A string broke, and I, frankly, I can't help it if I burn the dinner, but I can sure help my attitude towards it.
Because rebellion gets us nowhere and self pity gets us nowhere, but the insight to see that something can be done with second best.
can get us everywhere.
I've thought for years, one of my dad's favorite sayings, such a common one, but it's finally sinking deep into my head.
I just a little boy, I can recall him saying, over and over,
Roger, when live hands you a lemonade, lemon, squeeze it, and make lemonade.
That is still good advice.
Now, I'm certain Paul would rather not have his thorn, don't you?
He didn't want that, Thorn.
I'm certain that Paul, if he had his wishes, if he had his Druthers, would rather not have had that thorn.
But I suspect that there are qualities of understanding and sympathy that was seen as music moving through Paul's epistles that would never have been there had Paul not been forced to finish out his life on just three strings.
Now, in the second place, if you and I are to experience the grace that God wants to pour in, to make us sufficient in the midst of our weaknesses,
If you and I are to experience that grace, then, uh, not only must we have a positive attitude towards our handicaps, you and I must stop comparing ourselves with other people, and stop wishing to be what somebody else is, are wishing to have what somebody else has, we must stop wishing to do what somebody else is doing.
The reason that so many of us are so frustrated with our limitations is that we continue comparing ourselves with other people, and we wish to be what they are, or be able to have the facilities to do what they do.
And we habitually measure ourselves by other people, and we assume a responsibility for our happiness or our success, our usefulness that God never intends for us to assume.
It is a great day in the mind of a handicapped person, be he female, male, old, or young, when he finally understands that he has only one responsibility, and that one responsibility is not to be like anybody else, but instead, just to handle his own situation.
As best, he can.
Psychologists tell us that one of the reasons for emotional maladjustments is due to the fact that most of us won't accept who we are.
One of the reasons for many mental maladjustments is that most of us won't accept what we are.
You know what we do?
Born to be berry bushes and produce good berries, many of us, look at the apple tree and long to produce bigger fruit.
Born to be apple trees and produce beautiful apples.
Many of us cast our gaze at the maples and wish we could provide shade like they do, born to be a maple tree.
Many of us look at the elms and wish we were as tall and as graceful as they.
Now, God has given each of us a very special field to tell.
accept it.
And if the soil is thinner, and the rocks were numerous, and the prospects in your field, less promising than those in another's field, that is simply a fact of life.
We all must face.
We've got to stop looking over the fence and dreaming what we could do with somebody else's field.
Our limitations are also our opportunities.
Remember, Ralph Waldo Emerson's squirrel, when the squirrel was talking to the mountain, and they were discussing the value of their lives, and the squirrel says to the mountain, well, maybe I can't carry forests on my back, but you can't crack a nut.
For to handle this with grace, we've got to stop trying to be like somebody else, and except... the field God gives to us.
I think a little diminutive, four and a half foot tall, William Wilberforce.
Now, I would imagine that that Englishman, uh, the previous generation, long to have a big body, and a stronger frame.
In fact, a Boswell once went to hear Wilberforce speak, and he said afterward, I saw what seemed like a mere shrimp, mount the table.
And as he began to speak, and speak, and speak, it wasn't long until that little shrimp grew to the size of a whale.
And you know, that little shrimp of a man never had good health.
In fact, for 20 years, he lived on opium, under strict care of his physician.
Trying, somehow or other, to keep that diseased racked body in harmony with his soul.
But more than anybody else in England, he stopped the British slave trade, and, in fact, is buried now in Westminster Abbey.
where he's known as the etern attorney general of the untrodden, the unprotected, and the friendless.
Now you examine his life, and it seems rather obvious, doesn't it?
That that suffering, sensitive, life translated itself into a persistent, unconquerable sympathy with downtrodden people at some healthy hunk of a man in good health would never have felt.
So don't despise those limitations, their opportunities.
God will not judge us in masses, we will all have a personal examination.
And what we did,
in our own little field, is all that matters.
And if we say, before God, well, um, I'm not good as, I'm not as good as so and so was, uh, we will rather have missed the point.
Because maybe God says to us, well, done good and faithful servant, and you didn't have all the abilities and strengths and opportunities.
It so-and-so, head, and you did a marvelous job with what you hit.
And if we say, well, God, I was better than so-and-so, we missed the whole point.
It may be that God says, yeah.
But so-and-so had all kinds of troubles and problems that you didn't have.
You should have done a whole lot better.
And finally, if you and I are to experience God's grace poured in, it makes us sufficient in every circumstance.
Not only unless we have a positive attitude, not only, unless we stop trying to compare ourselves, in wish we were somebody else, I wish we had a different place to live, our different body to live it with.
Thirdly, if we're to experience that grace, it will be because we finally perceive that however limited may be our outward service, we can always make a spiritual contribution.
to the world.
Handicaps, far from preventing the development of spirituality, are usually the indispensable setting.
for it.
You bring on some shining specimen of manhood who's never had a handicap, who has a marvelously well integrated personality, who's lived in fortunate circumstances, who has great physical health, unhindered by any days of sickness whatsoever, and however energetic his service and activity may be in the world, there are simply some things he can never offer to people that Helen Keller can.
She's handicapped.
She's blind.
She's deaf.
And for her, the doors of life have shut on every side.
Except the one door that can never be shut for her.
The chance to be a radiant soul in the midst.
horrible.
circumstances.
The relationship between, uh, those fortunate people on one side who have few handicaps, and those who labor under intense difficulties, is a fascinating study.
And many of us will never appreciate the literary value, frankly, of paradise, lost, or paradise regained, but there's not one of us.
who can't appreciate blind John Milton sitting down to write.
Now that does something.
Forrest.
Many of us, frankly, aren't impressed at all with Longfellow's translation of Dante. But when you and I learned that Mrs. Longfellow accidentally set her dress on fire, and that Longfellow desperately, but vainly, tried with his own hands to quench the flames.
And that after it was all over, and Mrs. Longfellow died from the burns, had Longfellow himself sat down in that wifeless, motherless home.
And there to occupy a tormented mine.
He translated Dante.
And did it marvelously well?
Now, that says something.
Do it.
No one can easily estimate the spiritual stimulus that comes into human life.
From the handicapped people who have found God's grace.
Sufficient.
A number of years ago there was cheering at the commencement service of one Midwestern university, the likes of which had never been heard in that school before.
As a crippled boy, was carried across by arms of compassion.
to receive his hard work for diploma.
Four years ago, the boy answered present on the first day of his first class in school, and his professor said, Stand up, and the young boy said, I'm sorry, sir.
I haven't been able to stand since I was four years old.
But, by being what he was, in the midst of a very difficult situation.
That boy made such an impression on the entire university.
That when his companions carried him in their own arms in front of that great assembly to receive his diploma, there was cheering and clapping, such as had not occurred there for years.
Whatever despise a handicap, they are opportunities for service, spiritual service.
That no one else can render.
You say, Well, it takes great faith to live like that, yes?
And you won't find that faith in any atheistic society, and you and I won't find it in any cult.
You and I will only find it...
from a powerful living relationship.
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so Paul writes.
To keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh.
A messenger of Satan to torment me three times, I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said, my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses.
So that Christ's power may rest.
upon me.
Can we bow our heads and pray?
Oh, there's not a one of us here. Could have a struggle at one time or another, at one point or another, with some limitations.
Some handicaps.
Some of us were debilitating than others.
You know, I simply asked tonight that your spirit might take this verse, and do it deeply into our minds, so that we wouldn't fret or be upset, or anxious, feel cheated, about some difficulty that's come to us.
Instead, Father, we will look upon those difficulties as a marvelous opportunity for you to pour in your power.
And make us... victorious.
by your grace.