“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.” Romans 15:1

AMPUTATION! How is THAT for a word that alone demands attention? I don’t LIKE bad words like that one. So I am forced to admit that as long as that word visits somebody else’s door, brief attention is all it really gets from me. And right here and now… I want to make a public apology for that.

Galen has wheeled his fat, old, 1 legged, Ranger self into our church for a long time now! Paula is always at his side. Having trained and served as an Army Ranger, Galen is a tough turkey. The quality has rubbed off on his wife Paula and her Christian faith. They both drive further to our church than anyone, which takes almost a half an hour. They never miss a Sunday or Wednesday night service without a legitimate reason! Yet the bad news about Galen’s leg never stops coming!

If I don’t like something, I avoid it. It’s just that simple. For me to deal with unpleasantness I must force myself to die to my stupid, selfish, idiosyncrasies and ask Christ to fill me with HIS love and priorities. It takes EFFORT! Sometimes I get tired and lazy and just don’t want to even THINK about negative things. That happened Wednesday!

I got a text from Galen telling me that, after visiting his Doctor, he and Paula must make the decision to amputate his remaining leg! They’ve done all they can do and the decision now is… “you wanna amputate now or just wait a little while longer?” I was immediately sickened by the news and called Paula, promising that THAT NIGHT we would pray a special prayer for Galen at Prayer Meeting! Then I forgot!

Reading the Word, I discovered verse 30, written BY Paul ABOUT Paul. I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. He sounds desperate! Having served Christ and His church, Paul’s future is NOT looking very good. So he uses ALL the resources at his disposal in private prayer and faith. When that didn’t work, he URGES other believers to JOIN HIM IN HIS STRUGGLE. Spoiler alert! He didn’t get what he asked for!

We have prayed and prayed for Galen SO many times, yet have seen NO physical change whatsoever! This area of requesting miracles from God is a personal ‘rotten lemon’ for me. NOT because I don’t believe God can DO them. But because I honestly haven’t seen Him do that many! Asking again makes me feel like I’m jumping into a vat of depression and failure, expecting a different result. And since I don’t like it, I avoid it!

But God NEVER fails. And Galen and Paula aren’t done getting VERY special attention from the Master of the Universe. Like with Paul, their pain will bring Glory for God, just like mine and yours. And even though I don’t LIKE dealing with the subject of weakness and failure, God expects me to do just that. Because ‘I’ have LOTS of bad attitudes and actions that I carry around, I’m hearing God say, “ya want to cut them out now or later?”

Galen and Paula, I’m sorry for forgetting about praying for you Wednesday night. Will you, dear reader, please join me in doubling down for our friends.

What does God want to remove from YOU and how can we help?