Handicapped

Today I was fortunate enough to hear a great soldier for the cause of Christ. I attended the Governor's Prayer Breakfast in Indianapolis this morning. Most Americans are familiar with Gen. George Patton, the hero of WW II's Battle of the Bulge, but unaware that this illustrious soldier's career ended tragically — the victim of a freak car accident that broke his neck and left him a quadriplegic. Fewer still know of another soldier — a soldier in the faith — who today deals with his own physical paralysis. His name is Dick Woodward, pastor/founder of the Mini Bible College radio program, a survey of the Bible now translated into 15 languages. Woodward, crippled by a spinal cord disease since 1982, is confined to his bed for 20 hours a day and moved only by the help of a hoist operated by his wife, Virginia. Unlike Patton, however, it has not stopped him from doing more than most men hope to do in a lifetime.

We were able to hear him from his home via the marvels of technology. He told of his ministry and told of his disease. We listened as he told us about how God must increase and he must decrease. We heard this from a man that showed such spiritual insight. He reminded me that I am handicapped too, but I just don't see it.

God bless his ministry. May God help us to see our handicaps and rely on Him for our life.

Sid