Diminshed-There is Blessing in Need

It started with a thumb that kept wanting to hit the space bar, even after it was time to stop doing so.  A part of me knew the label that would be placed on this unruly thumb.  It took several years and a divine nudge to get me to a physician, who sent me to another physician who ultimately pulled out his metaphorical label-maker and labeled that thumb (now turned entire right hand)  "PARKINSON'S DISEASE."  (Either he was going for drama with all caps or his label maker was stuck on caps, and he didn't know how to change it.) 

I can tell you a thing or two about a life diminished.  (Click HERE to learn about diminished chords and their relationship to living.)  I can tell you about the awkward dissonance of the events of a life that seem out of place, wrong even. 

I can tell you about taking pills. 

 

Lots of pills. 

I can tell you about holding a cup under a soda dispenser wondering how much of the soda is going to end up in the cup.

I can tell you about getting more salsa on the counter than in a bowl.

I can tell you about a fearful future. 

But just as the diminished chord only makes sense when heard within the greater context of the song, so the diminished life only makes sense when considered within the context of the whole. 

There is blessing in need. 

It seems ridiculous, but when you are in need, the door is open for blessing to enter.  We work and struggle to avoid being in need, and I think that is appropriate.  But, then we work and work to fill every want and desire.  We make our business blessing ourselves, and we miss the opportunities to bless those around us.  We are perhaps most like God when we are meeting the needs of others than at any other time.  And, oh, the blessing when God rushes into our weakness and gives us strength greater than that within us!  Only those in need know that quickening.

And so, I pray the only prayer I know to pray in my weakness:  "Lord, make me able."  

And in praying for myself in this way, God has led me to pray for others who have the same need I have, a desperate need to be ABLE for the day at hand. 

He has led me to His promises that assure me that I will be ABLE for all He lays before me. 

And I lean into those promises, and I trust. 

This is HOPE.  This is FAITH.  These are gifts that have come only through the dissonance of the present reality.  The seemingly wrong become perfectly right as the chord shifts from the awkward to the harmonious. 

I wonder if there has been a time when your NEED has become the source of YOUR GREATEST BLESSING.   If so, you too know the blessing of the diminished life.  I hope you'll share your experience with us in the comments below.

Humbly,
Quentin