Lifting Heavy

When I was a teen, I prided myself in being big, strong, and athletic. Lifting heavy objects was actually exhilarating for me. I would bend over, get a good grip, and then muscle the load to my shoulder and walk off. My dad, however, would always bark at me… “Bend at the knees, use your legs, bend at the knees.” In my youthful pride, I poo-pooed such advice as being the paranoid warnings of an old man who couldn’t cut the muster.

40 years later, I bark at my daughter, “Bend at the knees, Lindsey, be smart and bend at the knees.” When I have to lift a heavy object, it’s with reluctance and with carefully positioning of my body mechanics by bending at the knees. Bending at the knees and lifting with your legs instead of the back is the “power position”…you lift more and you keep yourself from injury.

Likewise, in life and in ministry, I have learned that when I am faced with task of lifting heavy burdens the only solution is to “bend at the knees”. If I try and muscle the challenge up on my own power, I am certainly going to hurt myself. However, if I “bend at the knees” posturing myself in prayer, I am in the “power position”, to receive what God is longing to give to me.

Friday, I am going to give up a whole night’s sleep to pray at the church. It’s called a Watch Night Prayer Time. I need it. There are some heavy objects in front of me and the church…and the most powerful means to face them in is “bending at the knees”.