Saturday: The Human Log
WEEK 43
SATURDAY
THE HUMAN LOG
2 Corinthians 4:17; 12:10
We note mastery over another enforced idleness—the idleness of illness. Paul says, “You know that I first preached the gospel to you because of an illness. Though my poor health burdened you, you didn’t look down on me or reject me, but you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God, or as if I were Christ Jesus! Where then is the great attitude that you had? I swear that, if possible, you would have dug out your eyes and given them to me” (Gal 4:13-15).
Here Paul was thrown aside through an illness, probably badly running eyes; but this being thrown aside was the occasion of his preaching the gospel to them. The idleness of illness became the opportunity for preaching. The Galatian church and the Galatian epistle came out of an illness. The running eyes that compelled him to lay up in Galatia also made it possible for him, through the Epistle to the Galatians, to move into the centuries.
A modern and dramatic illustration of this is found in Walter Callow, sometimes called the “human log.” he is so helpless he cannot even brush a fly from his face. His arms are helpless, both legs are gone, and he is totally blind. And yet he is one of the most useful men in Canada. He has a suite of offices at the big Camp Hill Military Hospital in Halifax. His own room is a hive of industry, where his secretary answers telephone calls all day long. In this hospital room we make the spirit of Christ live.
He has invented a bus to care for invalids, a wheelchair coach that takes shut-ins to football games, to special events, to entertainments. He has four of them in operation every day, and they are all free. He says of himself, “I could be a lot worse; I want to thank God that at least I can talk and think. I want to repay him, for I believe that after a man dies, they will ask only one question: ‘What did he do for others?’ ”* John Fisher of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation says: “Walter Callow is the biggest man I know. Beyond the sheets two lips move, and that is all. But inside that paralyzed frame is a heart absolutely dedicated to others.” His body cut down to almost nothing, his spirit is free to roam and bless.
O Jesus, I thank you that nailed to a cross and helpless, you put your arms around a world and saved it. Help me to make my crosses redemptive too. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My infirmities shall throw me back on grace for healing or for power to use them.
* See http://www.waltercallow.ca, accessed March 20, 2017.