Where The Broken Are Swift And The Weak Are Strong

I hear religious minded people say all the time, with good intentions, “God will never place a burden on you that you cannot carry.”

Really?

My experience is that God will place a burden on you so heavy that you cannot carry it...alone. He will break your strong back and crush your independent will. He will buckle your stubborn legs until you fall flat underneath the crushing weight of your load. And there on the ground, flat on your face you will find written on the pavement of your pain, “My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in your weakness.”

When Jake was small, he could not walk very well at all. He wore braces on his legs to help keep him steady, but still ended up more on his face than on his feet. He ran like a newborn colt looking as if every step might be his last. Jake's favorite mode of transportation has always been on the back or the shoulders of his dad.

Whether at the mall or on a neighborhood stroll, up the stairs or down the stairs, when Jake had exhausted all of his strength and began to get unstable, I would pick him up off the ground, lift him high in the air and place him on my shoulders. He would always squeal with a kind of victorious joy at his new powerful position.

I think this is what the apostle Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 12:10 "When I am weak, then I am strong." Paul knew better than any of us that falling and failing always resulted in God picking him off the ground and placing him high upon the strongest shoulders in the universe.

The physical and mental demands of raising a special needs child may never get easier and the emotional load may never cease to take everything you have on any given day. But remember, God plans it that way in order to bring you to a place of true strength. High on the shoulders of our heavenly Father is a vantage point of fortitude where the broken are swift and the weak are strong.