CRUTCHES

I Was Just Thinking About - - -

A crutch is a useful device that serves as a support to assist and enable a lame or infirm person to walk. The crutch is designed as a weight-bearing device so a healing process to a leg (hip, knee, ankle) injury can occur. It bears the load of the rest of the body and alleviates stress on that part where healing must take place.

Crutch is used with different applications in human affairs and dialogue. If one spends any amount of time on Facebook, there are ample illustrations of people who use terminology as a “crutch” in the hope that it will silence another. 

In some religious exchanges, one of the crutches employed is to express some “camp” one thinks he or she is in. One of the terms bandied about in this political year is that one candidate has “Evangelical” support or endorsement. That is supposed to convey that the candidate is a “professing Christian”; believes the Bible; and goes to Church occasionally. If there is an attempt to ascertain clarity about being a “professing Christian”, the answer usual will state they are a member of the First Perspicacious Church in downtown Podunk somewhere. It may also be stated that they never have asked for forgiveness, etc. 

Other crutches used are the terms employed to convey that one is more theologically based by stating they are “Reformed” and/or “Truly Reformed.” Others express belief that more water rather than less in Baptism makes one more of a believer than a non-believer. 

What will enable one to no longer use intellectual or spiritual crutches? A good starting place would be Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

What do you think? Prayerfully – Consider these things with me.