A young woman from North Carolina named Erin Phillips died at the age of 32. She’d been born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder impacting the lungs and other major organs. Her life was extended thanks to a lung transplant. With her new lungs and physical freedom, she climbed mountains, served orphans, and inspired many. Erin told anyone who would listen,“Don’t be delicate, be vast and brilliant.”
In Matthew 10, Jesus, says to his disciples,“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (10:16).
Those who are too delicate to join in God’s work with humanity will find their rewards fleeting. Whether born with or without “defects,” your time here is short. Jesus’ parting words to his gang of mostly uneducated, poor fishermen before sending them out to face a cruel and hurting world were sobering: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (10:39).
Coming into the world with real limits on what she could and could not physically do heightened Erin’s understanding that her treasure [life] resided in a jar [body] made of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7), but she wasted no time focused on worrying over the jar. She busied herself lavishly pouring out the treasure.
Everything that Jesus asked of them, he’s asking of you. It’s not any easier today than it was in the 1st century.