Of Broken Hips and God’s Grace

Maybe a bit on the ironic side – I can’t walk and I’m launching a site called Daily Faith Walk.  It had something to do with ice, friction, gravity, angles, comparative densities, and force.  It wasn’t pretty!  I’ve got a non-displaced crack in the socket of my hip.  Rest is the order of the day, or rather the order of a few weeks, and I’m not supposed to put any weight on my leg.  No walking.  So, I’m out of commission.  Sort of…. In Genesis 31, Jacob decides to do what he wanted to do for years.  He had been managing his father-in-law’s family business so to speak and it was time for a change.  His father-in-law’s family was becoming jealous and Jacob was not feeling the love.  It wasn’t going to be easy – Jacob had his hands full.  Besides running a very successful goat-breeding operation, Jacob had other responsibilities – two warring wives; a household staff with complicated work/personal relationships and the resulting kids; a diversified portfolio of livestock.  No matter, he was going home and the long-standing, unresolved personal issue of a brother who wanted to kill him would just have to sort itself out. Where was God in the mix?  Well, not far away, even if Jacob wasn’t giving it much thought.  He knew God promised to bless him.  He knew God told him he would go home.  That doesn’t mean he was completely ready.  God wanted Jacob to see what happened now was all God’s doing, not his own – and it was all for his own good. Skipping over all the panic livestock installments Jacob sends to his bristly brother, we finally get to the part where God won’t be ignored.  “Hey!  You want the blessing?  You want to know where I’ve been this whole time you were exiled?  You want to know where all this good stuff you’ve got came from?  Not you!  It’s been me this whole time and if you didn’t have to put a little umph into it you wouldn’t appreciate it.  You’ve already been blessed!  Wrestle with that!  And just so you won’t forget, I’m going to give you something to help you remember every time the weather changes – how about a trick hip?” So, I’ve had this dream of launching something new.  I’ve taken some probing steps in that direction for years.  But God is now saying, “Jump!” and I won’t worry about the hip.  This is God’s blessing and He’s just making sure I know it….