Invisible Wheelchairs

And he says to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)

Today few concepts are valued more than personal freedom. Being limited or bound in any way is seen as anything from a misfortune to a violation of human rights. Autonomy and ability are valuable currencies that seem to be able to buy happiness, fulfillment, and success.

But when we look at the life of Jesus, we find His experience on earth was riddled with limitations. The eternal, universal force of the Christ was compressed into a human womb and constrained to the body of a baby, then a child, then a man. Jesus was cut off from his heavenly homeplace, limited to communicate with language, bound to live alongside small-minded and small-spirited people, and executed under the application of a flawed litigation.

Within the most formidable or limitations, Jesus not only flourished but lived the single most extraordinary life in the human story.

Thriving in limitations is possible for us, too. In fact, our weak parts and ugly tendencies and failures and inabilities provide open spaces for miracles to spring up. Our limitations today are merely shadows of the ultimate limitation—death—which was exactly the limitation through which Jesus worked out our salvation. If Jesus can redefine death as the way to life, can we believe our pain can have a purpose?