Walking With A Limp

I walk with a limp. I don’t like it, but it’s reality, for now.  It’s all a part of healing from a broken ankle. Walking with a limp is awkward and even painful, at times. I try so hard to hide my limp, but I just can’t. For now, I walk with a limp.

Do you walk with a limp? It may not a physical limp, but an emotional limp. Those things that have crushed or broken your spirit. You know, things that have happened in life that have left a scar. We all have them. We work hard to protect our image and hide them from the general public. They’re there just the same.

In “Leading With a Limp: Turning Your Struggles Into Strengths,” Dan B. Allender describes what makes flawed leaders successful. “They’re the type of leaders who are not preoccupied with protecting their image, they are undaunted by chaos and complexity, they are ready to risk failure in moving an organization from what it is to what should be.  God choses leaders who aren’t deceived by the myths of power and control, but who realize that God’s power is found in brokenness.”

Most of us don’t associate weakness with strong leaders, do we? Let’s take Martin Luther King, Jr. Do you think he was weak? We celebrate him today because he was a great leader, a strong leader. I thought for a moment about the times that King must have lingered in God’s presence, praying and seeking His face. I have a feeling there were plenty of times he felt very weak as a leader! King recognized his need before God and pleaded for His strength.

Consider this verse from the Apostle Paul: “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses…in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12

I think Martin Luther King had this verse memorized! He saw that his suffering had a greater purpose. He didn’t hide his limp! Leadership was painfully hard. Yet, he saw that in his weakness, he was strong.

Thank you, God, for the life and message of Martin Luther King! A limping leader is a person God can use to accomplish amazing things.

“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain for the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.