“A Leg to Stand On”
Pr. David Hewitt, KOG – July 3 & 4, 2010
Well, it’s great to be back up here! It’s great to be worshiping God together again with all of you! And singing with you! Speaking of songs, someone else from KOG sent me a list of special hymns that I would like to share with you. Did you know that dentists have a special hymn, just for them? Yes, it’s “Crown Him with Many Crowns.” Here’s some more: The Contractor’s Hymn – “The Church’s One Foundation.” The Tailor’s Hymn – “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The Golfer’s Hymn – “There is a Green Hill Far Away.” The IRS Agent’s Hymn – “I Surrender All.” Then a series of Driver’s Hymns…at 45 mph – “God Will Take Care of You”…at 65 mph – “Nearer My God to Thee”…at 85 mph – “This World is Not My Home”…and at 95 mph – “Precious Memories.”
I don’t know that I have “Precious Memories” of a certain section of hiking trail that I traversed on June 1st, when I slipped, twisted and broke my leg, and then fell. Perhaps the Broken Leg Hymn should be “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name, Let Angels Prostrate Fall.” Well, you wouldn’t think I’d call myself a devil, would you? Perhaps a more appropriate song would be “When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down…Christ laid aside His Crown for my soul.”
You know, not only has Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, and yours…but He has sent us His Spirit to be with us always, even in the “down” times. And when I was “down,” lying on the trail, stones and tree roots jabbing my back and side, waiting for human help to come, my wife and children and I prayed together not for help, but to renew our trust in Him. Sometimes God does little things to help us trust Him more. I am a David, and I remember that the key person among the 8 people who carefully directed the special trail stretcher down those 100 yards…the one the other seven kept asking about…the one who had the most difficult angle to hold me and the most pressure upon him, was named David. Later I was telling my EMT in the ambulance about this, how I never met a David I didn’t like, and the EMT, named Andrew, said at that point, “Why, my middle name is David.” And when He checked me into the E.R. at the nearest hospital, the last thing he said to me was, “You’re going to like your nurse; his name is David.” David the nurse was the first to look at my leg, and later, one of the other nurses said to me, “Yep, David was right, you broke your leg.” And the young man who wheeled me to the Operating Room? His name was David, too. Perhaps at times God indulges us our little superstitions…knowing that they are really signs from God saying, “Everything is going to be okay.”
You know, there’s so many ways in which God makes things “okay.” For me, it was not only the unfailing support from my wife and kids, family and friends, and my brothers and sisters here at KOG, including Pastor Paul and the staff; it’s also the surgeon, the nurses and doctors, with their skills and talents. Yet there’s still more. There’s the way that God has made our bodies, where they often heal themselves. My left leg bone, I have learned, is like all bones – covered with a “bone membrane” that somehow senses when a break has occurred, and heals the breach by creating more bone. Can you imagine if our cars and trucks could do the same thing? “Yeah, well, after the accident, my van’s front fender was severed in two. But I just, you know, put the two fender parts near each other, and left the vehicle in the garage for several weeks, and, oila! – pretty soon that fender rejoined itself and is as good as new!” Talk to some people who have recovered from strokes, and they’ll tell you in amazement how a totally different part of the brain has swung into action to take the damaged part’s place. Our God is an Amazing God!
I cannot hope to equal, let alone improve upon, the praise of God that another David makes in Psalm 66 today. “Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of His name; give to Him glorious praise. Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!’ Let’s say that together, “How awesome are your deeds,” ready? HOW AWESOME ARE YOUR DEEDS. Great.
This Psalm, Psalm 66, goes on and on in praise of our glorious Creator and Redeemer. We ended today with two verses, eight and nine: “Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.” Hmmm. “…has not let our feet slip.” [I look down at my broken leg] Well, most of the time! [Ha]
You know, this reminds me of times when we read Scripture and it says that God will do this for us, or that God will never let this or that happen to us and then something happens that seems to contradict God’s promise and we are tempted to say, “Hey, God, what’s going on here?” Of course I never thought that when I fell; I blamed myself, first and foremost, and then also I knew it was an accident; so, weeks later, when I read this, the appointed psalm for today, and the part where God “has not let our feet slip,” I laughed; I didn’t say, “Aha, God! You reneged on Your promise.”
Yet promising to keep our feet from slipping is one thing; promising to preserve our lives is a much more significant promise. Yet that is also in those last two verses: “Bless our God…who has kept us among the living.” (Ps. 66:8-9) Yup, that’s what it says: “Who has kept us among the living.” Breaking a leg, or being sick for six months, is one thing; losing your life, or seeing someone close to you lose his or her life, is perhaps the most agonizing loss of all, and it is easy, in our loss, to blame God for it; it is also easy for non-believers around us to point fingers and call our faith in Christ into question; in death, suddenly our belief in God may not seem to have a leg to stand on.
Death can create doubts. One such place where death can create doubts is in war. You know, when we talk about and think about matters of life and death, what more natural place to do that than in war? On this July 4th, we honor, as we do on Veterans’ and Memorial Day, those who have lost their life that this nation and its freedoms may long endure. But it is excru-ciatingly painful for soldiers and sailors, who have grown close in the depths of war and have begun to rely on each other more than they have relied upon anyone on this earth, to lose a buddy to death. And yet death is imminent in war, and one thing in war becomes crystal clear – are you ready for death? Are you ready to meet your Maker? This is as true now, in the fighting in the Middle East, as it’s ever been, as we see on our screens:
[We see a video of an officer describing how, in the
midst of war, he was able, as a Christian, to make a
witness for Jesus Christ to a fellow soldier, who was
contemplating his “eternal destiny.”]
My uncle Udell was a Marine Lieutenant in Vietnam in 1965. He earned the Bronze Star for valor when he led his company against a Vietcong ambush, risking his life in the battle. As one author described him, my uncle was getting ready one day for the reconnoitering mission that would lead to this battle, and Uncle Udell was “having some quiet time with the Lord. He had placed his trust in Christ for his salvation before coming into the Corps, and with each patrol [Udell] felt one step closer to death and nearer to God.” As he sat reading the Bible, a corporal, Malone, came in and saw the Bible and said to my uncle, “Is that your lucky rabbit’s foot, sir?” “No, corporal,” Udell replied, “That is God’s Holy Word, and through it and my response to Christ, I have assurance of eternal life. We could both die on this mission, but I know where I’m going. Do you?” My uncle later told me that he noticed that Malone seemed unsure as he walked away.
Later that day came the ambush and the battle in the Vietnamese jungle. The company point man, Dobbs, was already injured badly. All the rest were hugging the ground as the bullets flew above them, when Udell, as the leader, knew he had to be the first to rise up and lead everyone forward. As he did so four rounds from the enemy struck him in the right arm and hand, three hit his rifle, and another pierced a grenade strapped to his side, which for some reason did not detonate. Yet another bullet struck the recon camera located in his breast pocket and deflected the bullet away from his heart. Injured, my uncle went down, and saw Malone get hit as well. As Udell went over to Malone, Malone cried out to him, “Pray for me! I’m dying and I’m not ready to die!” Udell did say a short prayer out loud for him, and then went back to the fighting.
Afterwards, both Malone and my uncle were medevac’ed overseas and were able to recover from their wounds – my uncle narrowly avoiding the loss of his right forearm, though he lost most of his right thumb. I recall growing up watching him with fascination as he got by without that thumb, yet he was not bitter about it in the least. Before the end of the Vietnam War, he returned to Vietnam as a civilian minister to evangelize and distribute Bibles, and, with his family, has spent the last 35 years witnessing to and ministering to thousands of soldiers and their families overseas and here in the States. My uncle has always been spurred by those words he heard from Malone in that ambush: “Pray for me! I’m dying and I’m not ready to die!” Mr. Malone soon became, and has been now for many years, a Christian.
When we contemplate trusting in and living in obedience to the God who promises us that He “has not [and will not] let our feet slip,” we should always remember that we are sinners who are constantly being saved, and, as such, we are called to accept His will, and give ourselves to Him in return. Remember Romans 8:28, where Paul tells us that, no matter what bad things occur, “all things work together for good, for those who love God, for those who know they are called according to God’s purpose”; remember, too, that through all of our challenges and troubles, that we should be glad that we “have been crucified with Christ,” and say to ourselves, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in Me.” [Galatians 2:20] As any soldier already knows, we should know that any day can be our last; we should be ready THIS day, to believe, to repent, to obey, and find our ultimate rest in Him.
Near the end of the trail that day, my family and I were at a forest clearing, gazing at the mountain grandeur all around us. “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills,” I was thinking, “where my Help always comes from,” and I was thinking, “whatever happens, God, I’m with You; I will follow wherever You lead.” Five minutes later, flat on my back, almost all of me STILL felt that way; God’s Spirit did not take long to banish the rest, those fears, from my heart. I blessed God that He had allowed my faith to progress to this point; I blessed God that, as He had promised, He had not allowed the FEET OF MY FAITH to slip. Through earthly gain or loss, God the Spirit always provides; and He has placed in Your heart the most wonderful gift for you to open and use…the sense…the hard sense…that God will never allow the feet of your faith to slip, ever, and that your faith always will have at least one leg to stand on. Amen!
