Living Christ Thought: everyone NEEDS HELP!

In the Summer of 1989, while I was living in the Bay Area, I opened the Newspaper, and saw a headline that read, “Showing a Will of Granite.” The article was about a promise Mark Wellman had made to himself.  He was going to climb the sheer granite face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.  The only problem Mark faced was the fact that he is a paraplegic.  But Mark was determined, and before the summer was over he dared to keep his promise.  It took him SEVEN DAYS TO DO IT!  But the real story was revealed by an amazing photo, which showed Mark Wellman being carried on the shoulders of his climbing partner, Mike Corbett—the subtitle read, “Paraplegic and Partner Prove No Wall is Too High to Scale.”  What you discovered when you read the article was that Mike Corbett scaled the face of El Capitan 3 times in order to help Mark Wellman pull himself up once.  What’s the point?  Isn’t it amazing what you can do when you allow yourself to get some help?

 When I read that story, it challenged me.  My tendency—and maybe you are like me—is to think wonder how Mark could ever had asked so much from his friend Mike?  It’s hard for many of us to ask for help.  Recently I asked a sharp, mature Christian who she was going to for prayer and spiritual support. She said "Nobody."

                  Many try Lone Ranger Christianity—but even the Long Ranger had Tonto!  

·         We men tend to not ask for help! Ha!  Guys, when is the last time you asked for directions when you got turned around on some vacation back road?

 ·         There is something in us that is always trying to prove our sufficiency.  We think it is somehow especially worthy to be utterly independent.  We think it is a worthy feat. 

But I suspect such a VALUE SYSTEM.  I wonder where it came from.  Because God’s value system predates the FIRST SIN:  “It is not good for man to be alone” Genesis 2:18 

This “I can do it myself” without any help from anyone” is a subconscious desire we inherited from our great-great-great-great-grandfather Adam.  The desire to be like God, fully in control, needing no one.  Satan loves the result—because that GRANITE WALL that is standing in the way of God’s best for you, and which you can not climb on your own, but which you can do with the help of brothers and sisters, never gets scaled, does it?

“Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” Proverbs 27:5-6   Let’s be a Church that gets around all the bases to “home-plate!”

 “We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.”   Dr. Albert Schweitzer