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Sunday, December 16, 2007 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. In March I turned 40 years old. For my birthday I was given “over-the-hill” gifts wrapped in black paper. Friends and loved ones teased that my youthfulness would soon be chased away by graying hair and a failing body. “Nonsense!” I confidently mused. “What do they know?” In July my back went kaput. I was in excruciating pain, limping and wincing and squawking for weeks before my partner dragged me to her chiropractor. Now I’m a regular – and I don’t like it one bit. Mainly because the chiropractor knows, in ways I don’t even understand, how out-of-alignment my back is, how in need I am of re-adjustment. As humans, we are rarely amenable to correction in times of prosperity and good health. I didn’t go to the chiropractor when I was hurting just a little, I waited until I could hardly walk. Somehow, it seems, we are made more receptive to help in times of rock bottom-ness. Perhaps it’s our desperation, our longing for wellness that releases us, albeit temporarily, from the illusion that we can make it on our own. The prophet Isaiah knows how out-of-kilter his part of the world feels, how in need it is of re-alignment. The wilderness has turned to desert – parched, dry and burning hot. Fullness of life is being threatened by the jackals and ravenous beasts which prowl within and without. Humanity is plagued by weak hands and feeble knees. A spiritual paralysis, cemented in fearfulness, has halted body and soul. Israel can hardly walk – and so seeking the same kind of restoration we hope for during Advent, Isaiah drags the whole community, limping and wincing and squawking, into the office of the Cosmic Chiropractor. TWIST. CRACK. POP. SNAP. Re-adjustment is difficult. |
