“Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;”
~ Psalm 25:4
Hi James and Ellen,
When your grandpaa arrived at Lourdes Clinic – in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with muscles torn loose from the back of his left elbow plus a bone chip in the elbow, your grandpaa did not know than that the experience of almost being hit by a taxi would become an example to your grandpaa of what learning to walk as a Christ-follower is like. After your grandpaa – sometime in late December of 1980 or in early January of 1981, rode his 125 Yamaha street bike over from the inner lane of Santa Cruz’s inner circle to the outer lane to pass a bus and then after getting pass the bus and after moving back into the inner lane, your grandpaa looked in a mirror of the gray 125 Yamaha motorcycle that he was riding to find a yellow taxicab heading right for him. The taxicab had just passed the same bus that your grandpaa had just passed and it was heading for and up the street that your grandpaa had just begun to cross. Your grandpaa’s immediate reaction was to turn the 125 Yamaha motorcycle’s handle bars away from the fast moving cab as it was heading towards him. After the sounds had stopped of a turn light reflector breaking and the screeching of metal sliding on a paved street and as your grandpaa sat sitting in the middle of an intersection, your grandpaa felt very, very fortunate that only his left elbow had been injured from the speeding taxi that had almost hit him. When the doctor who operated on your grandpaa’s left elbow accidentally cut a nerve in the arm, your grandpaa was not able to move any fingers on his left hand. Your grandpaa was able to – after a couple of days, slightly move one of his fingers of his left hand. After a few more days, your grandpaa was able to slightly move other fingers of his left hand. Your grandpaa at this time could not begin to lift his left arm – let alone do anything with that arm. Your grandpaa ended up having to go to a rehabilitation clinic for his left arm. Your grandpaa – for more than a month, went back to the clinic for over an hour – Monday through Friday, to do different things that were to help him get back the use of his left hand and arm. On the first visits that your grandpaa made to the rehab clinic, your grandpaa had the gal – who was helping him get back mobility in his left hand and arm, tie his left hand to a large wheel so that he would be able to spin the wheel. Your grandpaa could easily have spun the wheel with just one of his right hand fingers before he injured his left elbow when he put down his motorcycle to escape a yellow taxicab running him over. Your grandpaa could barely spin the wheel around even once with his left arm the first times that he tried to do it after he injured his left elbow. The gal also had your grandpaa put different size plastic blocks with his left hand through the appropriate holes of a children’s plastic box toy, squeeze a rubber ball with his left hand as hard as he could without dropping it and turn a roller type thing with his left hand. The turning the roller exercise one day caused one of the fingers on your grandpaa’s left hand to bleed. The gal would also pull your grandpaa’s left arm down as hard as she could – even to the point of lifting herself completely off the floor as your grandpaa counted to five, and then she would push up your grandpaa’s left arm as hard as she could to loosen up the muscles that had been reattached at the back of your grandpaa’s left elbow.
Becoming a Christ-follower now to your grandpaa is like having missed being killed in an accident. When a guy, gal or kid becomes a Christ-follower, the guy, gal or kid will realize that he or she has a new life from knowing that without God’s saving divine intervention that he or she would be destined to an eternity of condemnation in the fiery pit called hell. A Christ-follower guy, gal or kid knows that being led by God – as God the Spirit, to make a profession of faith in believing in what Jesus – as God the Son, did for him or her has absolutely nothing to do with what he or she has done; but that it is because of God’s grace that he or she has been led by God – as God the Spirit, to and through the grace/faith door into God’s growing family of Christ-follower guys, gals and kids. David knew that his personal relationship with God was unmerited and undeserved. David was so thankful for what God had done for him – in spite of the things that he had done, that he wrote psalm songs to thank God. The psalm songs that David wrote would sometimes reflect on his compromising actions. Psalm 25 is one of David’s introspective psalm songs that anxiously asks God to please, please help him walk better the Christ-follower walk. David was aware of his shortcomings. David prays in his psalm song for help from God to live his life in integrity and uprightness – a life that is good and upright. David identifies himself with sinners, with humble guys and gals, with guys and gals who keep God’s covenants and with guys and gals who fear the Lord. David admits that he needs God to forgive him and that he is fearfully waiting for God’s pardon/forgiveness and God’s benevolent guidance to help him to be always faithful to Him in whatever God leads him to do on planet Earth.
Verse 4 in this prayer psalm song is a prayer that every Christ-follower guy, gal and kid should pray every day, “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;” Are you asking God every day to show you His ways – like when you get sick or when you get lonely? Are you asking God every day to teach you His paths – like when a kid no longer wants to be your friend or when it seems like everything is going against you? In spite of the missteps that David made, David’s legacy includes being called a man of God. In spite of intimately knowing God, David sensed his unworthiness to stand in God’s presence. To be saved is to be completely wrecked by God and then be repaired anew by God as God did with your grandpaa’s left arm. How has God been wrecking and then repairing your lives?
Psalm 25 (813)