Stephen Hawkings occupies one of the most famous and prestigious chairs of
education in Great Britain, and he is considered one of the great thinkers of
this century. He inherited the modern mantle of Albert Einstein. Yet he can't
even tie his own shoes, brush his teeth or comb his hair, although these are
simple tasks that millions of youngsters proudly master every year. Mr.
Hawkings's body has been twisted and crippled by an affliction commonly known as
Lou Gehrig's disease.
This disease essentially causes Mr. Hawkings's nerves to "disconnect" from each
other so that the messages from his incredible brain cannot pass through the
nerve pathways to his body. There is nothing wrong with Mr. Hawkings's mind. He
is able to hold and handle huge mathematical equations in his mind. He can do
all of his thinking without the aid of notes and/or the convenience of penning
things down. Typing is laboriously done through methods only a handicapped
person could appreciate. He cannot use his fingers; he cannot even use an
apparatus to be held in his teeth. All Mr. Haw kings can do is blow into a tube.
What strikes me about this picture is that there is nothing wrong with Mr.
Hawkings's head. It is his body that is dysfunctional. According to Ephesians,
Christ is the head and we are the body.' Now recall my original thought: I
wonder how long God has struggled with a crippled Body. How long has He been
troubled by cells wanting to disconnect from each other or refusing to connect
in the first place?
A paralysis of purpose has invaded the Body of Christ, yet our Head still thinks
with divine clarity. He wants His hand to move, but it will not obey. He bids
His feet to walk, but they will not go. He sends signals for His tongue to speak
but it refuses to act. Can you believe it' This is a picture of the great mind
of Christ-captured within the crippled body of a divisive Church.
This is our great dilemma: we stand at a point where a remnant in Christ's Body
is struggling to heed the signals of our Head. This must be our chief aim, as
Paul challenged the Philippian believers: "Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus."'
Tenney, Tommy. God's Dream Team. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1999, p. 102-103.
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