Spiritual Amputation

Teresa Poucher

I shut the door on my dog’s foot almost five months ago. I have been to a few vets and taken numerous trips to the LSU vet school. Four bones in his foot were broken, but only two have healed. Should I amputate my dog’s leg?

 

  Fitting in or feeling like you belong can be difficult. If you have a disability, it’s even harder.  You may feel cut off from your peers.  Yet, if someone in your family has a disability, we will often be extra-protective and sensitive to their needs.  

 

If we saw someone with a handicap, most of us would go out of our way to help them.

 

Sometimes, when it comes to our church family, we might not be as quick to help. Instead, we might think, “They know better,” “They shouldn’t have done that,” or “They hurt me.” Unfortunately, the spirit of division we feel in America is trying to creep its way into our churches.

 

  We must not be ignorant of the devil’s devices.  We are the body of Christ; more than brothers and sisters, we should be one in His Spirit.

 

  “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.”  (Ezekiel 34:16)

 

  So, before we amputate a finger because of a splinter, let us reconsider: “Is this really what we want to do?”  Instead, let’s fulfill the Word of God: 

 

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32)