Gift Disguised

“When you start seeing the gift you stop seeing the handicap.”

Loren Thornburg

Gifts can often go unseen.  Often they are even seen as a hinderance rather than a gift.  A friend reminded me of this recently as we hiked.  Climbing up to 14,000 feet is not an easy task, largely due to the affects that altitude has on your breathing.  Yet, what seemed to be a hinderance to getting up the mountain as fast as we may have liked became a gift that it was hard to breathe.  For what happened in the midst of that was we were forced to stop and enjoy the AMAZING views and beauty that surrounded us.  If it wasn’t for our difficulty breathing we may have kept on without stopping, which means we would have kept on without enjoying and seeing the gift around us.  My friend pointed out it was as if God made us to have limits so that we would stop and see the gifts that are around us.  

“...so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.  Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees...”My grace is enough; it’s all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness”...I quit focusing  on the handicap and began appreciating the gift...”

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Message

I wish I couldn’t relate to Paul here, but I can.  We all can.  We all have limitations.  We were designed that way and it is part of His design. Paul recognizes them as more than limitations, as the opposite of limitations; he calls them gifts.  That sounds crazy to think that our sicknesses, our weaknesses, our deficiencies could be seen as gifts.  Yet, it’s true.  I’ve seen it and I can even say that those things I once saw as “handicaps” I now see as gifts.  Some days it’s harder to see than others, but eventually what I find is that they brings me to the realization that in the weakness I am forced to look to Him for strength in ways I never would have or even thought possible.  It is in inviting His strength that I find so much more than my talents or gifts could have ever offered.  Unfortunately, I don’t look to Him for that if I don’t have to.  If my limitations don’t force my to my knees I forget to seek His grace that is more than enough.  So I find it really is a gift.  When I start seeing the gift I stop seeing the handicap.  

Thanks to Melissa Mullins and Kierstie Cameron!