Urban Gathering

Cast and Crutches

Seattle is one of the loveliest places on earth when the sun is shining. That really is only about 3-4 months a year, but it is nice. Temperatures rarely get over 85 and the sun is out from 5:30am until 10:00pm during the summer. Our winters often get long and drab with many days of consecutive rainfall. When the weather begins to break the kids start itching to get outside, and we parents are itching for them to get out.

This year has been no exception. When the sun finally began to break through my kids started the outdoor treks. Excitment and fun led me to two emergency room trips in less than two weeks. With one child in an arm cast (distal radial fracture!) and the other in an arm brace (wrist sprain). Outdoor adventure slowed quickly. It was challenging as we learned the cast would be on for six weeks! argh! Then having to learn to care for the cast, how to bath without getting it wet. How to function with reduced activity (you try slowing down a 13 year old boy!).
The doctor was very particular to explain to my son why he had to wear the cast. “If you dont allow time for proper healing, you will damage it more severly, requiring surgery and six months of casts and hearling verses 6 weeks!” What a lesson.

The doctors statement has resonated in my own life for some strange reason. I was reminded of Ecclesiastes 3,

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

I want to encourage you today, no matter what your are going through. God wants to work in your life. He wants to do a wonderful thing in your life. But allow time. Allow place for healing. Don’t loath the cast you may find yourself in. The cast will eventually come off. And if you allowed the time to heal and conducted your activity in a way to promote healing, there will be strength.

Breaks often happen as a result of stress on a area or a weakness in a bone. How much different in our own lives? When bones break, an extra layer of bone grows over the area you broke, so basically a callus on your bone making it harder. But proper healing and time, there can be strength. What will you allow God time for in your life today?

Most people think that it will be weaker, and more likely to brake again, but its actually less likely. When you first get your cast off it will feel weaker, but thats not the bone feeling weak, its the muscle. Dont forget to excercise that area around the breaks!

Lately I was told through conversations with friends and comment postings of the statement that “religion and faith are merey crutches for the weak”. The idea is that either people turn to religion as the means of reassuring themselves that their difficult, lives are worthwhile or tolerable in view of the afterlife (hence, “opiate of the masses”), or that people who would rather not think for themselves are easily led along by a religion that gives them pre-digested philosophy, morality, and instructions for daily life.

As I pondered (Texas for think about!) that thought, I would say that crutches, like casts, are good. A crutch is a device for helping the wounded both function and heal. As such, crutches are beneficial, useful, and helpful. Many religious people do live difficult lives, whether stricken by poverty or disease or suffering. They do turn to religion and to faith as a solace for the soul. And there are many aimless people who do desire some direction in how to live. Religion gives them the firm foundation upon which they can build their daily lives; it stops them from making costly mistakes, and helps them find ways to care for others. In some cases, such as in people who need boundaries and rules, this framework is of vital importance.

With that in mind, I think that I would have to argue that a clear definition of religion is required. That is where the line deviates in all different directions. I personally think of it in terms of relationship. Life changing relationship. You see, the cast or crutch both allow for proper healing. It does not take much time at all as we look truthfully in our lives to recognize that we are not complete. There are areas or things that need attention.

I really like how James put it in the Bible, James 1.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

The purpose of a crutch is to walk it out. Religion, that is right, is walked out! Promotes healing and strength.

Just some thoughts to consider. . . . .

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