What If We Can't?
What If We Can't?
John 5:1-9.
"Make every effort to supplement your faith with virture, and virtue with knowledge.
For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective
or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Pet. 1:5-8, ASV)
Theodore P. Ferris, rector of Trinity Church in Boston, tells of an incident that happened
some years ago with a theological student who had a great flare for oratory,
coupled with evangelistic zeal, as he spoke at Bowery Mission in New York City.
He preached with great force and passion, and ended his sermon by reciting
from Kipling's: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs," etc.
When he brought the poem to its dramatic conclusion, a whisky-soaked voice
in the back of the hall spoke up and said: "Well, what if you can't ?"
I wonder whether the answer came back, but "You can!"
Or did some Christian seek out the man and tell him "But you can!" suggestion
that gave him the courage to go on?
This is a delicate subject to discuss.
The line between "I can't" and "I can" is often finely drawn.
It may not be discernible.
There are I can'ts that must be recognized, either permanently or temporarily.
To call an I can't an I can against the fact makes for disaster.
We do live under limitations, physical, mental, temperamental.
There are differences in endowment.
There are I can'ts which must be accepted.
But we must never succumb to an I can't.
The word succumb means to lie down and to sink under.
No I can't should submerge us.
We need not sink in the sea because of inability.
It is possible to rise.
But what if you can't?
"That is the great if of life."
What if you can't handle yourself?
What if your problems are too much for you?
What if you have failed again and again?
What if you can't conquer your temptation?
What if you can't get rid of that feeling of guilt?
What if you have a weakness of temperament or disposition that defeats you?
What if there is a situation that drags you down to the depths?
What if you have a habit that you abhor and you can't master it?
What if you have a ideal and you can't reach it?
What if there is a good to be done and you're the one to do it,
but you just can't bring yourself to it? What if you can't save yourself?
How shall we deal with these I can'ts?
We can appeal to God to help us.
That is the natural reaction.
When you can't do a thing and you ask God to help you, you are following the instinct
of the human race.
A primitive man reaches out for the spirits to help him.
If he believes that the spirit resides in a tree or stone, you'll find him trying
to influence that tree or stone with an offering.
He expects magical occurrence. He doesn't know the laws of cause and effect,
but he believes in bad spirits and good.
He'll placate the bad spirits not to hinder, the good spirits to help.
I'm only pointing out that it is instinctive and natural when you can't handle
a situation to ask the unseen powers to help.
Since many of us do not arise above the primitive expectation of magic,
it is well to point out that our God is not a magician.
We appeal to God to help us, because we realize that there are things
we cannot do alone.
When Dan Crawford, the great African missionary, went into the jungle
for the last time, he cried out, "I cannot do it alone!"
But he went straight forward and entered the jungle.
His prayer was answered.
He did not go alone.
To reach the Alpine peak one must be tied to a guide.
There are spiritual heights that can be climbed only with Another.
There are things we cannot do until we pray, "Thy will be done."
Jesus prayed in the garden that the cup of suffering might pass from him.
It was too bitter to drink.
When He uttered the words, "Not my will, but thine be done,"
His victory was won.
In appealing to God we should make sure that the purpose or aim
which registers an I can't on our part is valid in the name of Christ.
"Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son."
The first step then in dealing with an I can't is to appeal to God for help.
A second step is to accept responsibility for yourself.
To do this here are some suggestions.
Do not run away from yourself.
"If I could only get away from myself!" a young woman said, in the confidential
atmosphere of the pastor's study.
"It seems that every direction I turn I meet myself in some disgusting fashion."
"She had not been an evil person.
Her morals were of a high order.
But the memory of failure and shortcomings tortured her almost to despair."
No, there is no escape from self that is not temporary, and which does not
leave the person more frustrated than before, except escape on a higher level
—and that requires discipline.
Accept discipline.
This is our second point in the acceptance of ourselves.
How we have fooled ourselves into disliking even the word!
We have deluded ourselves into flabbiness of character.
The path of least resistance is a well-beaten path and all of us
are inclined to walk in it.
It multiplies the I can'ts in our lives.
It is not the pathway to I can.
By the lack of self-discipline, though we ask God for help,
we make ourselves impossible for God to help.
There is backbone and moral fiber that each of us must seek and accept
for ourselves before God can give us ability and power.
A third point in accepting responsibility for oneself is:
Be willing to advance slowly.
Though this is an age of speed, in the realm of personality and
character achievement the pull is often slow and long.
Climbing the Mt. Everest of the soul is step by step.
In some realms there are no short cuts to achievement.
Some cans must be grown into.
The primitive mind may expect magic.
The primitive man may plant a seed and expect the fruit tomorrow.
Not so with the wise man who tills his soil, plants his seed, looks to God
for sunshine and rain, and expects the fruitage in due season.
So with the soil of a man's life . . -
The fourth point in accepting oneself so that I can't may become I can
is like unto the third.
Be patient! Patience is the hard virtue.
The day will come.
The abilities of your life are not poured out for you from some great reservoir
of ability—your life must be filled from underground springs and these may be slow
and intermittent in their flow.
A third step in dealing with an I can't is to hold on to a belief in miracles.
Christ still walks among us.
Look at that story in John 5:1-9.
The man had been thirty-eight years in his infirmity.
When Jesus passed by he was still seeking a cure.
Then the miracle came.
Have we seen any miracles lately?
Surely we have, that is, if our eyes have been open.
I have seen a whisky- soaked man who cried out "I can't!"
win a victory through the power of God.
I have seen a hard, bitter, unlikeable woman change into a sweet
and gentle person.
What have you seen?
There are many miracles to be seen, and they are not far away.
I am not speaking of magic.
That is out.
God is not a magician.
God is a miracle-worker.
God's ways are higher than our ways.
He has ways of working that we do not know; or, if we know them,
we are slow to recognize that they are His.
With God all things are possible.
Much is to be said of his power to lift an I can't from one plane
to an I can on a higher; his use of an inability to enhance and fortify an ability.
Never succumb to I can't.
—Adapted from various sources.
We must pray to our great and holy God to enable us to forgive us
all our transgressions, all trespasses, all sins, all moods and attitudes
unworthy of our calling.
We must pray as David to God to create in us clean hearts
and renew a right spirit within us.
We must pray that a true humility to displace our pride.
May sympathy overcome our selfishness.
May patience do a perfect work in us.
In all the untoward experiences of life help us