Letter To My Legs

 

The race has not started, yet your feet is
heavy.

Weighed down from the baggage left un-lifted.

How do you begin to explain, that you have never been this afraid in your life?

That even though you’ve been called “fearless warrior”, by strangers;

Your heart sank when they told you to forget.

To forget that you single handedly lifted medals- in the past.

That in this race, everyone is an “Usain Bolt” anyway,

and in that instant you begin to lose yourself, start to choke from everything:

The expectation, the eyes watching,

you do not feel ready.

Sweaty palms;

un-ready.

How do you begin to explain that you are tired when the race that has not even begun?

*** ***

Do you know that God has a sense of humor. That He would tell you that He doesn’t need shield and spears. That a sling is perfect. And you stand, mouth open, trying to comprehend this.

He would say that the 32,000 men with you are too many for this war unless they would boast of the victory. You scratch your head trying to solve this puzzle.

How on earth does this work?

Allow me to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, the Lord said to Gideon,

“The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’ “Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.'” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.

Let me zoom in on this.

The voice announced, “If you are afraid, go home.”

22,000 out of 32,000 sighed in relief, packed up their bags and left.

Does this mean that all 22,000 were indeed afraid? If they were, then it must have been a pretty serious issue or don’t you think so too?

Maybe they had a right to be afraid and it is because we have not really heard the full gist that we are wondering why they left.

But I have another question about this.

If the situation was so terrible that 22,000 warriors (about 69%) were afraid, how come the remaining 10,000 were not afraid?

Did they not hear the tales of doom too?
What made them so “un-afraid”, so courageous, refusing to walk away?Someone once said that

“courage doesn’t mean the absence of fear, but the ability to face your fears”

The real question then is not whether or not you are afraid.

It is:

what do you do when you feel fear?

Would you be convinced that this war is not for you and you should not have been chosen.

Or would you remain put.

Back to our story.

Then, the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there.”

Can you believe that at the end of the test, God chose only 300 men to go to war with Gideon?

Now, this doesn’t seem logical, how can 300 do what 32,000 intended to do?

At this point, you hear in the stillness,

“Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands lest Israel boast about themselves against me, saying, My own hand has delivered me.”

Hmmm so,

“…you do not feel ready.

Your palms are sweaty…un-ready.

How do you begin to explain that you are tired when the race that has not even begun?”

Answer-

Therefore, when you feel afraid to proceed, remember that it is not your strength that would be used to win this war.

That brave men were convinced to go home because their ears were baptised in tales of doom.

Remember that it is a choice, a tale of two roads.

To go home already like the 22,000 men

Or to be the 300 who would prove that Victory neither belongs to the strongest, nor the most numbered.

You would be the one to tell the rest that Victory is an inheritance you should take hold of from a position of rest.

So when your feet feels heavy and the war hasn’t even begun,

Tell your legs to go to sleep. That they are broken instruments in this season relying solely on crutches made from the substance of faith.

Tell your legs that in this event, your strength will not pull you through anyway, but thank God you now have great rod to lighten your path.

This is what you tell your legs.

Un-afraid.

Here is a video of the spoken word version of this piece: