God's one weak finger

We love stories of under dogs; Seabiscuit, Clark Kent, The Great While Hope...Aslan, Frodo.  They give hope to all of us who by the standards of world, and by our own self-limiting lies are doomed to live a life always in the shadows of the great ones.

God is more than for the underdogs, they are his chosen people. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.(1 Cor. 1:27)

William Cutts was born breach, had a twisted spine, a short leg, lost an eye,  by the end of his life could use but one finger and could barely breath. If he were a dog in a country song he would have been named "lucky". He and his wife and children spent their entire lives in the mission field  translating the Bible into the local dialect of an unreached peoples' group in Papaw New Guinea. It was the most isolated area where Whitclyffe Bible Translators operated. William had been rejected by most of the world, but not God. God used his weakness for His glory.

The Moni  gave him a name which translated into "weak thing". This weak thing spent his life hiking up and down the steep cliffs of the rain forest and lived among waring tribes, witchdoctors, and intense isolation.  What was weak in the eyes of men was powerful in the hand of God. When William  died a lay pastor he raised up preached that he was greeted by thousands of whooping and dancing tribesman in heaven and together they all sang around the throne of God praising the lamb.

And that is our call to allow the Holy Spirit rush upon us (1 Sam 16:13) so that we will be a lamp unto those in darkness. "We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves". (1 Cor. 2:47 NLT).

But this can only happen when we know we can't do it, and often we only get to this point when our physical, emotional and spiritual strength have failed us. When we are the man on the side of the road, understanding that we can't fool God with all of our empty religious acts and broken promises then he rushes in. Then, and only then can God's power be displayed.

We weak things are used daily; in our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods. Not just on the battlefield against giants or in the rainforest in Indonesia. I knew of one very special lady;

Her name was Agnes Hjerpe (sounds like Jerpi). We met when I was serving as a part-time outreach minister at a Methodist Church, the other half of my time was spent as the janitor. Each week for over 30 years the "Monday Morning Group" of ladies would meet for coffee and cake (they always saved me the biggest piece) and while they chatted, sipped and snacked they would rip twin sheets into two inch strips and then wrap them around a #2 Pencil to be shipped off in shoe boxes overseas to be used as bandages in third-world hospitals. These frugal ladies didn't waste a thing! They even saved individual threads off the ripped sheets to tie up the rolls.

Agnes had the anchor leg for the whole process. She was well into her 80's at the time and was confined to a wheelchair. Her right hand was useless due to a stroke. Her left was gnarled to due arthritis save for one finger,  and this one finger God used for his glory. After the sheets were ripped and rolled, a woman next to Agnes would wrap a thread around the roll and begin the knot and then Anges would reach out with her one finger and hold the thread while the knot was tied.

All she had she gave, and God used it for his glory.  He did not look at the outside, and the Spirit rushed upon her.