Walking with a limp is a testimony to God’s faithfulness to us; and it is far more effective than the testimony of the powerful, because it points others who feel the sharp pain of sin and misery to the God who has given them the ability to feel that pain and who promises to rescue them from the power of sin.

Editor’s note: In this post, Eric Landry, drawing upon the story of Jacob, shares his pastoral wisdom about discipleship and the Christian life. In the story of Jacob, God gives Jacob a wound leaving him with a limp. This weakness in Jacob was a sign of God’s power and Jacobs ongoing need to depend upon the Lord. As Jacob lived by faith in the promise of God, he had an ongoing reminder that God’s power was manifest in his weakness.

As a pastor, I often find myself in my office, in a living room, or across a café table trying to help people make sense of the mess they have made of their lives. They want so desperately to be free from the pain their sin has caused; they want so quickly to turn a page and get on with life. They want to know that they are forgiven and that everything will be okay.

With profound gratitude to God for giving me the rights and responsibilities of my office, I gladly tell them that God in Christ has, in fact, forgiven them of their sin. But the joy and relief that absolution brings quickly fades as I tell them that God may not rescue them from the effects of their sin.

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