Wings or Crutches

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear..." (Psalm 46:1,2a).

That word is is, present tense, a right-now conviction that there is help–and hope. The verse doesn't delineate the trouble; it only tells us that help and hope are there when they are so acutely needed. Hope–which should be a Christian frame of mind–is one of God's greatest blessings to man. It is Christian hope that helps us to bear the burdens of life. "...Jesus Christ, who is our hope..." (1 Timothy 1:1), a this-moment possible confidence that all is not lost the instant we think it is.

"In the presence of trouble, some people grow wings; others buy crutches" (Anonymous). A legend is told of the time when God placed wings on the backs of the feeble birds and they protested loudly to Him, "Must we be burdened with this weight?" The Lord smiled and asked them to wait a week. The next day a strange thing happened. A force of some kind lifted them heavenward and the birds found themselves flying and floating, and enjoying a sensation they had never felt before. When the week passed they reappeared before the Lord and humbly acknowledged the wisdom of their Father. "These very wings which we ridiculed as unnecessary burdens we now cherish. They enable us to soar into the loftiest heights!"

We may be at the end of our rope, and that is exactly when God reaches down and pulls that very rope–and us–up to Him. It is said that when Luther and his friends became discouraged, Luther would cheerily say, "Come, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm." Luther had a special affinity for this Psalm and for good reason. When he said, "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise," he knew that his resources were immediate and unfailing; he need fear no man on earth. "A mighty fortress is our God!" So let us grow wings to soar beyond and above earth's sorrows and diseases of psyche and physique.