How Lame

If I were alive in, say, 1611, I would bear the label “lame.” Today we describe things that are lacking or unsatisfactory as “lame.”

“That show was lame.”

“The 80’s were so lame.”

Far, far back before English translators took a stab at the Greek, the word could mean anything from ‘lacking a foot’ to ‘limping around’. As I said, if I was in the time of  donning powdered wigs and sporting knickers and hose, my English peers would point at me and say, “He doth be so lame-eth.” But I am not hobbling around on a weak leg nor am I missing a foot. My legs and feet are fully intact, but they are ‘useless’ per se. They appear to have life but they are unresponsive to the command of the “head”.

See where I am going with this?

When our First Parents skipped around the Garden naked and unashamed, they had face to face communion with the Lord. They had really cool talks about life, history and destiny with pre-incarnate Jesus in the cool of the day. There was no veil. No disconnect. All the heavenlies were opened to their adoring eyes.

Then the strangest thing happened. A shining snake with legs got past security and came upon the couple with an offer they could not refuse. They bit, and, ergo, cut all of humanity off at its so-called legs. A veil dropped and the once-enlightened souls found themselves on the dark side. Just like that.

A few weeks ago I was in rehab with a guy who told me his story of how he became paralyzed. It was the kookiest of things. He had been experiencing some lower back pain, but took some Advil and went on about his day. This happened over the course of a few weeks. One day he was leaving his office and headed to his car in the parking lot. He reached out for the door handle, then suddenly everything below his waist went dead and he dropped to the asphalt. Snap. Just like that. And joined the ranks of the lame. One moment, he’s walking, walking, walking. Next mid-step and it’s over. Next stop: Shepherd Center.

Disability, sir, is your “new normal.” Sorry.

That’s kinda what happened to me, too. One moment I’m romping through the woods with a pretty girl in tow and the “next” instant I’m dead from my chest down. A fall. A mighty thud. A crack of the spine. Lame. My head wants me to get up, to move, to get out of Dodge, but my body says “I’m good. I’ll just lie here, thank you very much.” It’s like my body got a mind of its own. It suddenly cuts itself off from the brains of the operation and decides it wants to do its own thing.

Which is, just to play dead.

Humanity has the appearance of aliveness but is verily dead. Cut off. Lame.

The first healing miracle in Acts deals with (wouldn’t you know!) a “lame” man. Every day, day after day, someone carries his pitiful body and lays it down “outside” the Beautiful Gate. He has all his toes, his legs aren’t missing, but he can’t walk. Human effort only gets him as close as “outside” the Gate called Beautiful, just like the law can only get a dead, lost and lame soul as close as viewing the Land called Promise “from afar”.

Pretty lame.

Long story short, the lame dude gets healed. He is touched by the Power of Resurrection and Life Himself and the Bible says he didn’t just walk, he walked all around. I love that. It means he he tried out his new legs just like a newborn calf or foal, and treks this way and that and keeps on ‘trekking’. The veil between HEAD and body, soul and spirit was removed. Inability became supernatural ability. He then is instantly responding to the impulses and desires of ANOTHER as his life is carried by heavenly Hands! I await my own physical healing and know that it will come someday, no question, and I imagine I, too, will walk around. I may even walk the 170 miles from my doorstep to the place where I lost my legs thirty years ago. Yeah, that’s the ticket…

Yeah, I’ll do some walking, you can bet your sweet bippy.

But that’s not all I’ll do! And that’s not all the lame guy in Acts 3 did either. One of the verses says he actually LEAPS with joy and goes right through the Beautiful Gate dancing, shouting, whooping and praising God!

You know what’s pretty lame? When people who have been touched by the Power of Resurrection and Life Himself do not leap, walk around (in new life) and go all the way in through the Beautiful Gate. It’s pretty lame to just pray a prayer and stay on the Egypt side of the Gate, content just to chill and not press in. Just lay back and “kick it” (like my son says) where the company, terrain and atmosphere is familiar.

Who wants familiar? That’s just plain lame.

Not me, beloved. I’m leaping, walking with purpose and going all the way through. I do NOT want to merely “enter” the Kingdom. I desire with all longing to inherit all my Lord has for me and so experience eternal life to the max.

Praise to the One Who Is My Help From Above, the Hands that carry me, my Resurrection and Life. I am no longer lame in Jesus’ Name. While it is said that white guys can’t jump and white people really can’t dance, I’m one white dude whose leaping and dancing to this new tune is anything but lame.