I was doing readings in church this morning, but I didn’t think about that as I pulled my favourite sweatshirt over my head as I was getting ready. With the layered meaning of “Nevertheless, she persisted,” broadly across my chest, I read from the middle of 2 Timothy and beginning of Luke 18. Nigel’s sermon was a beautiful connection between Paul’s charge to Timothy to stay true to Jesus against persecution and his own messages to a friend in Belarus. My friends reading, please take a moment to pray for the persecuted church in Belarus; their stories are different than mine, but we are one in Christ.
You see, the passage that struck me this morning was Luke 18 – better known as the parable of the persistent widow. The Bible says that Jesus told this parable to remind his followers to always pray and never give up. I’ll be praying for my brothers and sisters in eastern Europe dealing with hardships I cannot imagine, but I’ll also be praying for my own justice. Well, justice isn’t exactly the right word for my healing, so let’s direct attention back there.
I have no new progresses – I lament not being able to write a weekly update with some new surge of function or feeling. Instead, I’m well into October adjusting my routine to account for the cold weather. My legs don’t like the cold weather. Nerve damage sucks, and I have to spend more time stretching and warming up my legs that cannot regulate their own temperature or communicate to me their temperature. I used to get a lot of comments about how brave and strong I am (I still get them, but less frequently), and they were usually tied to people being convinced they could never live with the condition I have. I’m a bit more tempered in my response to the comments nearly nine years in, but at some level my core reaction is the same: I have no choice. I have to take care of my body, so I do. My life would absolutely be easier if I could walk, but the reality I exist in means I have to account for nerve damage and physical limitations.
All that said, Jesus has reminded me to always pray and never give up. That’s why I’m back at it despite how late we are into October. Let’s do this: let’s pray for a miracle. Pray for the pastor in Belarus being unjustly detained to be set free and pray for my nerves to reconnect and allow me to pee. Pray for hearts to be healed and the courage to step into the chacos of peace, and pray for an avalanche of reconciliation. Pray for the miracles because every prayer matters, and when you are done asking God to move, see where God is moving in you.
