Get Up and Walk · Week 1 · Saturday Recap

The Limp Stays

I sat with Mephibosheth all week. I will be honest about why.

I had to. Because every story we wrote this week was a version of mine.

I am the man in the workshop hearing the old voice say “you’re going to mess this up.” I am the dad in the driveway whose grown son has things he still needs to say. I am the man in the parking lot wondering why this isn’t more. I am the husband who hasn’t prayed all week because of one specific thing. I am the father whose teenager has gone quiet, and whose first instinct is exactly the wrong one.

One Verse I Keep Coming Back To

There is one verse I keep coming back to. It is the last sentence of Mephibosheth’s story.

The Bible could have ended on the redemption. The land restored. The seat at the table. The covenant kept. Instead the Holy Spirit insists on one more sentence.

He was still lame.

The limp stays. The seat stays. Both at once.

The Offer We Almost Always Misread

A lot of men I know are waiting to be healed before they come to the table. Waiting to feel less ashamed. Waiting to feel more worthy. Waiting for the limp to go before they take the chair.

That is not the offer.

The offer is the chair, with the limp, today.

The whole reason this week’s stories worked is that none of them ended with the man fixed. The man in the workshop still has an old voice in his head. The dad in the driveway still carries the failure his son named. The man in the parking lot will get up and drive that same drive again on Monday. The husband at midnight still has the failure he could not bring himself to name. The father with the quiet teenager still has a son with a closed door.

And every one of them sat down at the table anyway.

Breakfast This Morning

I will make breakfast for my wife and four boys this morning. I will limp into that kitchen with everything I am still carrying. So will they. The covenant does not care about our limps. The covenant kept by Another already pulled out our chairs.

We get up and walk because the King already set the table.

Next week we sit with a left-handed man from the wrong tribe. The thing they called his defect was the thing God used to deliver his people. We are going to talk about calling.

— Lance
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