Dude! Use a Toilet

Thinking about powerlessness. I am a parent, so the grasp for complete power over another human is a constant mirage. Just when I think I have trained my son to act like a human, he takes a leak in the parking lot. God I’m trying, but I don’t know…

On Sunday we talked about a crippled man in John 5.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

His sense of powerlessness produced a paralyzed response to the offer of hope by Jesus. That happens to us. But Jesus has the power and uses it.

While reading from Romans 5 today I saw that word powerless. “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly . . . God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus knows your story and is completely invested in making it beautiful. So even at your most powerless, Jesus is working on your behalf. Get up and walk.

I love my son, even when he is at his most animalistic. I am using my power to create a better life for him . . . a life that uses a toilet.