Calling All Chariots!

Praise God For The RFD “Chariots of Fire” Team!

Greetings Faithful Followers of Team Mission Access!  Flashback with me to 1985: the year my beautiful Mom Geraldine “Gerry” Holt Shea dove headlong into the deep end of Disability.  Diagnosed with a massive brain tumor, she was rushed into surgery to dislodge it ASAP.  And though the surgery saved her life she nevertheless suffered with the disabling fallout for the rest of her life.

Still decades away from experiencing disability in my own life, I responded to my mother’s disability in the best (yet most maddening) way that I knew how:  a “gift” of a walking cane complete with clever wrapping along with a card and of course an obligatory “healing” verse: 

Jude 1:  24 NIV:  To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—

And OH does that make a great-sounding Get Well card!  Problem is that “naming and claiming” something over someone who is suffering can create the exact opposite effect of what was intended when prayers remain unanswered.  How Loving is that?  Being on the receiving end of a plethora of such prayers I can tell you emphatically:  Not So Much!

So what’s a better response?  Try a little good ol’-fashioned encouragement!

One of the most encouraging stories from the Old Testament Book of 2 Kings tells the tale of the prophet Elisha and his servant who outwardly appear to be facing certain doom at the hands of the King of Aram’s powerful army.   Ah!  But there’s something much more powerful playing out behind the scenes in the spiritual realm:

2 Kings 6:17 NIV:  And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Speaking of Chariots of Fire…

Though I struggle with disability like my mother before me, I now wear a pendant complete with a direct connection to the Richardson Fire Department’s “Chariots of Fire” Team who remain poised ready, willing and able ready to rescue me at a moment’s notice.  I Thank God for Them for they have Lifted Me Up…quite literally!

How’s THAT for Naming & Claiming? 😉

In His Accessible Grace,

Linda