The Death Crawl...

May 27, 2009

Danielle Joyner Kelley

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:2.

If someone spends hours picking out a birthday present for you, and they believe they have picked the perfect gift, they have one expectation: use. They do not anticipate you leaving it in a box somewhere. And when you open it and see the instruction manual of how to put it together, they expect that you will complete the task and not give up on it. They paid the money, you put it together. How does that person feel when you tell yourself you cannot put it together because it is too hard and you throw it back in the box and shove it in the closet? What if they paid $700 for it? $200? $50? Regardless the expectation does not change: they expect use.

God has given all of us many gifts. For some it is looks, others personality, others knowledge, some all of the above. Regardless it is a gift He gave to you, and He expects use. Now stop and think about that for a minute. You have a gift, and you open it. You look at the instruction manual and start to put it together. Then you stop and tell yourself that you do not want to do this because it is too hard. You do not want to do this because someone beside you got looks and personality and you only got knowledge. Does that change the expectation? No, He expects use. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Ecclesiastes 9:10. One gift He has given to us all: His strength.

For those who have seen the movie, “Facing the Giants”, one scene stands out and grabs total attention. The Coach takes a player, whom he is having trouble with, and makes him do the “death crawl” where he has to get on his hands and knees with a player laying stomach side up on top of his back. He tells his player to make it to the 50 yard line crawling and will not let him open his eyes because he doesn’t want him “giving up at a certain point” when he can “go further”. By the end of the scene, although the player wanted to give up many times, he has crawled all the way to the end zone, way past where he thought he was going to end up on the 50 yard line.

It is an incredibly moving scene, and when I see it I think of everything surrounding me and how often I want to give up, but I know this time that God is my Coach, and He is on the ground with me yelling not to quit, not to give up, and to give him all I have. When I yell and argue with Him that I have nothing left and I cannot go any further, He is the one yelling “Yes, you can”. He knows I can because He is my source of strength, and He has an unlimited supply of it to give. For most of us, it is not until we are on the ground, out of breath, unable to stand, weak and feeling so helpless that we are willing to turn to Him for the strength. It is not until we have no strength left on our own that we turn to Him to provide it. Would you drill for oil in an area that you knew could only produce 100 barrels? Or would you drill for oil where you knew it would never stop coming? Lean on Him for your strength.

All of us want to give up, but we must press on. We must show that we are faithful in using His gifts and relying on Him for our strength. There is a simple point to it really: He wants us to do this because He will never let us down. He will never let us fail. People around you may fail, your circumstances may fail you, but He never will. The person on top of your back causing the crawl to be more difficult is not the one screaming for you not to give up. But God is. "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn." Psalm 18:32-36.

Still I get bogged down in my problems and yell to Him that this has to end soon, and beg Him to show me when it will end. However, like the Coach in “Facing the Giants”, He won’t let me open my eyes because He does not want me to look up and get overwhelmed at how far the end seems and give up. He wants me to hear His voice and keep moving forward step by step. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8.

And even though we keep giving up on Him, He never gives up on us. He is on the ground right beside us telling us not to give up and to give it all we have. He does not show us the end and allow us to dwell on how far we have to go, He takes us minute by minute “one more step”.

Most important of all, He knows the bigger picture that we cannot see through our pain: the end zone is better than the 50 yard line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrSzXTa4OFU