Found On Bended Knees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-8BN316mM

It had been a great summer for many reasons. I went on my first youth camp to Cleveland, TN and made friends with some high school guys. I became embraced by everyone in my youth group and for the first time, became truly passionate about God.

One particular day that summer, it was hot, like any other day in Louisiana during July. Yet, I had a responsibility to take out the trash.

My family and I lived on our own land located behind a significantly large neighborhood in West Monroe, LA. The hill we had to walk down to catch the bus for school was rather long, so out of kindness, our father got us an old golf cart from one of his friends so we could ride down to and from the bus stop each day.

On that hot summer day that July, I did not want to walk to take the trash to the barrel to “burn it.” I wanted to ride the golf cart, and make the trip more swift and convenient.

So I loaded up the golf cart with the one trash bag and then I sat down and turned the keys to go. As soon as I hit the pedal and started down the hill, I couldn’t focus or press the brakes to stop. So when I reached the curve by the trash barrel, I flew out of the cart as the cart proceeded to land on and trap most of my bottom right leg.

As soon as it happened, I screamed and cried for a few minutes saying “HELP! HELP!” I sang every hymn and Christian song I could think of. Out of true desperation, I even sang the words from this classic song…

“I get on my knees; I get on my knees

There I am before the love

That changes me

See I don’t know how,

But there’s power

When I’m on my knees…”

After what felt like a lifetime and I had prayed, screamed, and sang my heart out, my Dad drove up the hill in his truck, lifted the golf cart up, and helped me walk up to the house. When I got older, both my parents told me that they and the doctors thought about possibly having to amputate my right leg after the accident. Thankfully, that did not happen and I have only a scar above my right foot to serve as a reminder that I survived one vehicular crash.

As some of you may know, over the past two months I have been spending time with a 6th grader named Colton that lives in my building. We’ve gone to movies together, out to eat, and walked around, toured the city of Fort Collins by way of public transit.

Yet, getting to know Colton has not been an easy task. While I do not know what he has, it has become more and more clear that he has some type of disorder and at the same time, needs a lot of extra love and patience.

While talking with him about one of his “conditions,” today he said that he felt like he could not handle it. To his complaint, I responded with this, “Colton, conditions may not go away, but they can be managed.”

As I said those words, I felt a little nudge from the Holy Spirit and while I did not hear an audible voice, I felt like He was saying, “That’s what I want you to know too.”

Even though I may still be going through valleys, even though my dreams and hopes may seem hard to picture, God is there to say, “I love you; I hold you, and I will come to your side always, if you simply believe in me and call on my name.”

He rescued me from that golf cart; He saves me still, He makes me patient when I have no patience to give. If He can do all those things, why do we doubt that he is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

It is time to shut the door to our rooms, call to Him in secret, call to Him from the rooftops, call to Him from the valleys, the freeways, and the streets. It is time to cast aside doubt, to fall on our knees, and to believe.

Until Next Time,

Jacobo