Theological Thoughts for Thursday

Umc.org recently ran a profile of Tina Luce. She is the minister of music at a United Methodist church in Salem, MA. She was born blind. Her main quote in the article is, "I tend to trust people who minister with a limp more than those who don’t." I couldn’t agree more.

My cat has a broken tail. A previous owner accidentally slammed its tail in a car door, and promptly took her to the SPCA. He wouldn’t keep a cat with such an obvious deformity. People ask one of two questions when they are introduced to Vassya. Some ask, “How did he brake his tail?” Others ask, “How did his tail get that cute little curly-Q?” Vassya almost always relates better to those who notice his cute curly-Q of a tail than those who notice his imperfections.

Ministering with a limp involves the disabled, but it goes far beyond that. I minister with a limp. My sister ministers with a limp. Sometimes we tell the other stories of how God is using us, and the tone we use conveys nothing short of awe and amazement. There is no pride, no selfishness, no arrogance in our voice. There is shock – God still chooses to use us! To use our limp in ministry.

When Rebecca was living in Erie she attended Erie first. She called me one day to share the amazing news that God had used her to lead a youth to Christ. I’ve heard these stories before – the hook, the sink, the closer, and the prayer; all shared with a smug sense of self satisfaction. This story was different. Rebecca was crying, she didn’t really know what had happened, she was talking to this kid and then she was praying with him, and she was confused and, and, and, behind it all ran this sense of unworthiness. That God would take her from where she had been in the not-so-distant past to the place of changing a person’s life for the better ran contrary to everything she knew.

“I tend to trust people who minister with a limp more than those who don’t.” God rewards holiness, as God shows us time and again in the Bible. But God also blindsides us with radical grace and trust – as God shows us time and again in the Bible and in our own experience – using us, our limp, our tiny faith in ways we could never imagine.