Don’t Let Your Heart Become Tarnished
April is Limb Loss Awareness Month! Based on a recent study, there are more than 5.6 million people living with limb loss and limb difference in the United States. Of that ~5.6 million, there are ~2.3 million people with limb loss and ~3.4 million people who were born with their limb difference. And every year, there are approximately 185,000 amputations in the US.
We are honored to support this community through our faith-based retreats. Through the years, we have met so many inspiring overcomers, and we know that each of their stories has a special opportunity to touch the lives of others. As we embark upon #LimbLossAwarenessMonth, this April we will be sharing many powerful, moving, and inspiring Stories of Hope from some of the remarkable young men and women with limb difference we’ve met over the years at our retreats!
So often in adversity we can feel a sense of abandonment as we face the harsh reality of what was and is no more. Our future may feel blurred, lacking the ability to see what is to come. What are we to do when we find ourselves at the crossroads of victim and victor? It’s hard to imagine being a victor in the thickness of the grief that comes with loss. In that moment, it is overwhelming to see a full and bright future ahead.
Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” “Sufficient for the Day,” maybe that’s the key to where we need to sit when we feel as if we will succumb to the victim mentality.
It is in the thick of it we are often taught the greatest lesson of the strength we have rooted deep within us. The strength that maybe never needed to surface before, or couldn’t surface without the obstacle at hand. We are told it is in our weakness that God’s strength is made perfect in us (2 Corinthians 12:9). He is an ever-present help within the core of our weakened state.
We must not let our hearts become tarnished by the hard things we face. Instead, we must look through the lens of faith and believe that no matter what we find ourselves walking through, God will use this in our lives for something amazing, something only He can do.
A.W. Tozer says, “God never uses anyone greatly until He tests them deeply.” It can be difficult to surrender the hard things into the hands of God. Tears cried in the right direction (at the feet of Jesus), along with our sufferings intercepted through prayer is where we find the greatest refining. It is where God mends the brokenness and brings the pureness to our once painful wounds. Victory over trials is a choice to be made daily, it is that of trusting it all to the Lord. He is faithful, and when we give our brokenness to Him, we find that He won’t waste our pain. He will use it for a purpose so much bigger than the pain.
This is a resounding message we see played out in the lives of the young men and women we meet though our retreats. Again and again, we see them choose victory over being a victim, learn to adapt to the challenges life throws at them, and turn to God in their pain and watch Him make beauty from ashes! It’s a community of overcomers, inspiring each of us to keep going.
As we embark upon Limb Difference Awareness month, let’s challenge ourselves to not let whatever hard thing we might be facing tarnish the truth that God is working in the midst of it. If your strength feels weak, remember who is near to you in the trial. God has not abandoned you. His strength is made perfect in weakness.
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