News Flash: Your Success is NOT because of You.": A modern day allegory that helps to illustrate the best love story every told.

(For copyright purposes I made this video from clips from footage provided by Ironman. The song Grace Flows Downs is performed by Christinia Nockles)


You need to watch the video prior to reading the blog. :) 


The popular worldview of Deism that flourished in the late 17^th and 18^th century espoused a view that God, the Supreme Being that created all things, got the universe and life started, set in motion the natural laws to govern creation, and then committed the ultimate act of abandonment.  Put differently, He got the earth spinning and walked away.  Interestingly, this was the dominant worldview of the framers of our Constitution of the United States.  It is a well-accepted belief that our framers were Christians.  And as much as Thomas Jefferson and others had a high tolerance for the Bible as well as citing the Bible in their works, there is very little to suggest they articulated key New Testament doctrines of salvation made possible by grace through faith, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, or that salvation is made possible only through Jesus.  In other words, their deism allowed them to have plenty of intellectual room for the existence and role of God, but their deism lacked the personal intimate details of the same God that put on human flesh for the purpose of restoring them back into a right relationship with Himself. 

Unlike the preferred intellectual deistic worldview of the 18^th century, the Bible provides plenty of evidence that our Heavenly Father created with a purpose for relationship.  God did not leave the pinnacle of his creation, humanity, to be parented by a set of natural laws.  Instead, He created us for a love relationship.  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.” The Psalmist describes a Heavenly Father that took a

personal interest in his own conception in Psalms 139:13-14.  The Old Testament profit Jeremiah speaks of the Heavenly Father’s love awareness of us before we were even formed in our mothers womb Jeremiah 1:5.  These two passages provide a picture of a Creator that is intimately involved in his creation.  


These are great passages to cite when families experience babies that are perfectly healthy and grow and develop without any issues.  But what about the families that experience the deep pain of miscarriage, stillbirths, or babies that will grow and live the rest of their lives with debilitating diseases?  Did God somehow mess up in the in vitro “knitting” process? Or, did God always intend, before conception, that a person would be born with significant challenges? I am treading lightly here because only by the grace of God have we been blessed with three healthy babies.  I cannot begin to understand the pain so many families have to experience. 

Where was God when Ricky Hoyt was strangled by his own mother’s umbilical cord while in vitro causing tremendous brain damage coupled with cerebral palsy?  The story of Ricky and his dad Dick is well documented by now.  I was first introduced to this story over ten years ago, and when I see footage of this father’s love for his son, I am still brought to tears.  For those who are unfamiliar with this family’s story, Ricky was rendered paralyzed and lacked the ability to communicate verbally.  At a young age with the help of computer technology, Ricky was able to talk to his father.  For years there were questions if Ricky even had the brain development to understand his parent’s attempts of communicating.  One morning Dick decided to take his son on a 5K jog pushing his son’s wheelchair the entire time.  After the run, Ricky communicated the message to his dad, “I have never felt more alive than when you took me on the run.”  This ignited an explosion of love in his dad’s heart that lead to intense training and Ironman triathlons and marathons for the next twenty-years. 

To me, this family’s story provides a much bigger narrative that helps to connect God’s desire to rescue us from our sin disease through the use of allegory and metaphor.  Ricky’s significant limitations provide another way of framing our spiritual limitations.  The idea that a person paralyzed with cerebral palsy could compete and finish an Ironman triathlon is the perfect definition of “impossible.”  Similarly, the idea that we could save ourselves from our sin disease through anything other than faith and God’s gracious gift of salvation is equally “impossible.”  And, yet, there remains a tendency for us to revert to a works-based relationship with Jesus.  A “boot-strap” theology that relies on individuals pulling themselves

up from their mistakes, mess-ups, and addictions, to somehow present themselves as fixed and healthy before God.  The “boot-strap” approach of Christianity may resonate with us Americans because we have a proud history of growing a nation from nothing to a global superpower.  American ingenuity is the false front that continually derails our faith dependence on Jesus.

The metaphor of Dick towing his son 2.4 miles in the ocean, carrying his son on his bike for 100 miles, and pushing his son 25 miles all in succession illustrates the way God sustains us in our life event.  Metaphorically, the footage of the Hoyt’s is the great reminder that just when we forget our spiritual limitations and lack of righteousness and begin thinking that somehow we are doing life on our own, achieving success through our own abilities, and bringing our own self-righteousness before God, we realize that God is doing ALL of the heavy lifting.  He is empowering us, sustaining us, blessing us, and most of all sharing His righteousness so that we may be presented clean and whole in His presence.  If there were ever a reminder of our human frailties when it comes to our own spiritual progress, this video is it. 

Probably my favorite piece of footage from the video below is the joy experienced by Ricky when they finish this particular event.  It is as if Ricky himself swam the 2.4 miles, biked the 100 miles, and ran the 25 miles.  The look of accomplishment on Ricky’s face gets me every time.  This scene allegorizes what I think the scene will be in heaven.  I think there will be a sense of joy and completeness when we enter the presence of our Heavenly Father who created us, rescued us, and sustained us.  The power of this video and the Hoyt story as it relates to God’s love for us is there are characteristics of our Heavenly Father that we will never experience if we never have to experience tragedy.  Please, please, please do not interpret this short essay as a thorough answer to the heart-breaking questions that some parents will ask their entire lives regarding the loss of their children.  In fact, I have my own questions about tragedies I ask everyday.  And that will never change for me this side of heaven.  But, this video may open the aperture a little wider putting on full display that when we were powerless to rescue ourselves, God put on human flesh and in His son Jesus, made it possible for us to compete in our own life event. For most people, their life event will be full of heartache, pain, and tragedy.  But rest in the assurance, that when our tragedies occur and render us powerless, there is ONE who remains all powerful to draw closer than ever before to get us through it.  The beauty of this reality is that God just doesn't get us through, but He also demonstrates elements of his love that would never be experienced if not for a Heavenly Father that grieves with us for the sake of bring about heart healing.  

As you watch this video, try to see yourself in Ricky’s position.  You are so loved that your Heavenly Father is so compelled to do anything and everything to be back in relationship with you.  And if you happen to be living under the false impression that you are flourishing because of your own sweat equity, may the scenes of this video be a gentle reminder that on your best day in the presence of God you are completely powerless to even take care of your own basic needs.  However, you have a Creator that has promised to finish your race for you if only you are courageous enough to trust and believe.  Be confident in this, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil 1:6