Now To Him Who Overcomes!

The Value of Overcoming by Jake Hamilton
Sometimes life just smacks you right in the face when you least expect it. All the emotions you had tried to forget or at least tuck away until you had time to process began to seep like a fountain from your eyes unleashing a torrent of memories and wounds as well as triumphs and treasures that had been buried under business and burden, now demanding immediate attention. Triggered by some unforeseen event or conversation the Holy Spirit unlocks the floodgates trapped deep inside and invites healing at what seems to be the most inappropriate time.

I had gone to dinner with my wife a beautiful start to our evening.

A burger and fries out one of our favorite local spots, then a walk around some shops in the little village area. Next we find some espresso then off to a parent meeting at my daughter’s school.

But this would not be your typical parent meeting.

My wife and I were about to be hijacked by the Holy Spirit

Our daughter was born with cerebral palsy, more specifically what the doctors call “Spastic Diplegia”. This is the professional way of saying my daughter does not walk. The process of pain and grieving as well as rejoicing in her triumphs has led us down many roads in our faith that would take much more than a simple blog entry to unpack for you. You can never understand the pain of a parent’s heart that is forced to experience their child growing through their young life with a handicap. Every experience from getting dressed in the morning to getting in and out of the car is full circumstances that demand attention and thoughtful planning before you ever leave the house. Not to mention medicine, walkers, and wheelchairs all to make sure our daughter has all that she needs to get to anywhere she desires to go and that what was handed to her in birth does not define or deter who she can become. With that said, the school she attends is not your normal public school with a small “Special Education” program. This is two fully functioning schools built on the same campus; one with handicap students and one without blended during the day both in and out of class so that kids with physical disabilities have access to help without hindering their academic development.

But on this damp February evening in Southern California the Lord wanted to take us deeper in our understanding of His heart for our daughter and heal some misconceptions we had built along the way.

It began simple enough, about twenty parents and a few administrative staff all gathered to discuss where they see their children in twenty-five years so the school can work backwards to define practical goals in their current education system that would help them to attain these hopes and dreams for our children. Also invited to this meeting were six young adults who had attended my daughter’s school anywhere from fifteen to twenty years earlier. What was the goal of their attendance? To share what they had experienced growing up in the school as well as at home and what we could learn from their experience to help our children.

That sounds easy enough.

Wrong.

From the moment the first girl opened her mouth I knew I was in trouble.

They shared their names and their ages and what they were currently doing with their lives. Every one of them had given their lives to volunteer with others in similar situations but a couple of them had already earned their masters in areas like family therapy so they could be a resource to students and parents who were finding themselves in similar circumstances to what they had already walked through. They continued for over an hour sharing stories of friendship, love, rejection, surgeries, heartache, and much more than most of us will ever have to endure in one lifetime. They laughed through the entire meeting as they shared stories of buying a skateboard so they could hold on to the back of their friends electric wheelchair in order to get around easier or carrying their friend who couldn’t walk up the stairs at the movie theater right through the first ten minutes of the movie, laughing hysterically, just so they could have better seats. They were undeterred by their circumstance or the severity of each situation that every new day could bring.

For one moment, one brief unbelievable moment through the triumphs and trials of these young men and women I could see my daughters future and it was filled with so much hope. I wept because I could see in the flesh what I had seen in the spirit so many times before, my daughter can do and become anything she sets her heart to do despite the condition of her legs and for some Christians in the “charismatic” side of the faith that may seem to be a contradiction. I believe that God can heal my daughter and I believe that it is His will to do so, but if God desires that “none should perish” (2 Peter 3:9) and people die everyday and Jesus Christ himself walked by numerous sick and afflicted people without touching them then I have to assume that God knows what He is doing and my responsibility in my relationship with Him is not to understand why He does what He does but to trust Him while still standing firm in what the bible says about the character and nature of who He is.

“Blessed is he who is not offended by me.” Luke 7:23

This verse is in the context of Jesus telling His cousin, through his followers, that although he is about to have his head removed; He is not coming for him. That is some bad news if you are John the Baptist. We glorify the verses and stories in the bible where Jesus shows up and saves the day but we run from hard to digest passages like this so that are faith is never challenged and our pet doctrines are secure. I am not claiming to be an expert on healing in the bible or a theologian of any kind. I have no degrees and have experienced very little in my fifteen years walking with Lord when compared to mothers and fathers in the faith and I boldly refuse to let my disappointments define my faith in who God says He is but the disconnect between what I have seen in meetings around the world and I have seen in my own house has to be addressed in my heart and in my family if we are to walk out an authentic faith that does not misrepresent Christ to a hurting and dying world. We must learn not to try and answer peoples problems with our mediocre understandings of deep theological truths but through our weakness and by exposing our own wounds point them to the one who is the answer.

We are all handicapped.

Some, like my daughter cant hide it. Their handicap is available for all to see, for people to point and stare and question. They can’t simply deny it or pretend it doesn’t exist. Their every action and decision will be determined by the inability of their bodies to perform the functions necessary to do many of the things we take for granted. So they compensate and grow. They learn to adapt and be creative in their problem solving so that they are less and less defined by what they can’t do until the day their achievements far outweigh their natural circumstance.

But others of us are handicapped in less obvious ways; we were wounded emotionally and relationally by those around us. Those we trusted took advantage of their freewill at our expense and left us scarred. We were abused and neglected, rejected and forced to fend for ourselves causing us to love with a limp. But unlike my daughter we can hide and ignore our handicap although its evidence is in plain sight for all who can see just beneath the surface of our fake smiles and slick words. We hide behind the achievements and accolades that the world calls success all the while masking the crutches holding up our hearts. Money acts like a balm our hidden hurts and sex becomes like a band-aid, covering our inability for intimacy.

We are all handicapped.

The choice then is to either surrender to our current circumstance or like these brave young men and women that I met search for answers in the most unlikely of places. This is the beauty of Revelation chapters two through four. Seven churches are mentioned and at the end of each correction we are left with this line, “Now to him who overcomes…” When we are faced with the reality of who we are and what we have become we are only left with two choices; lay down and give in to the lot life has handed you or get up and move into the freedom God has offered you. This is not some violent act of war but the quite stillness of heart that declares, “God I trust you.” “Our battle is not against flesh and blood…” (Ephesians 6:12) This is the first step to developing the heart of an overcomer; “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

He knows what He is doing.

He hasn’t forgotten you.

He hasn’t abandoned you.

But if we cant even recognize that we are handicapped, He cannot heal us.

We must stop pretending.

We can not expect Him to do what’s necessary for transformation in our lives if we just keep telling Him we are fine and don’t need anything.

If you want healing, then recognize your sick.

If you want to overcome, then recognize that you are trapped.

“Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:41)

Recognize today that we are blind, that we know nothing, and that He is the source of all our healing; physically, spiritually and emotionally.

Freedom is calling.

Will you listen?