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In the 1970’s Denver running back Floyd Little was facing off against the big bad linebacker Dick Butkus. When describing a collision he said, “Dick Butkus hit me so hard my body almost liquified.” Not wanting to look weak, Little pulled himself up quickly as if nothing had happened. Butkus then said to him, “You okay?” Floyd Little said, “Yeah of course.” Then Butkus replied, “Well if you’re okay, why are you in our huddle?” He’d been hit so hard that he had followed him into the Bears’ huddle.
A lot of time we pretend we are okay when it is obvious we are not. Maybe we want to look tough. Maybe we are just shell-shocked. Maybe our pride can’t admit we are broken.
But we don’t have to do that with God.
“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
God isn’t fooled when we try to play like we are fine. And we don’t have to play. He supports us in our weakness. As Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
Even when we have been knocked down and out by the “big bads” of the world, He is there to lift us up and turn us in the right direction. We always have a place with him even when we have been knocked low.
Barry Haynes
Hope Church of Christ
Hope, AR