Obedience and Enablement

By David Kowalski

I don’t recall the exact year, but it was around 1995. While pastoring a church in Clarkton, Missouri, I developed a peculiar problem with severe pain running down one leg. The longer I would stand, the worse the pain became. I could keep on my feet and walk for no more than five minutes, at which point the crippling pain would force me to sit (a position in which the pain was barely noticeable).

For my first week preaching with this condition, I did not know what to expect. Preparing for the worst, I had a chair ready from which I could finish speaking if necessary. During the 25 minutes or so that I spoke that Sunday, I kept on my feet but sensed no pain whatever. As soon as the service concluded, I stepped down to converse with some of the congregants, but within five minutes the excruciating pain forced me to sit on a pew as we continued talking. Church services followed this pattern for at least six more weeks while the problem persisted. At any other time I could not stand for over five minutes, but when preaching there was never any limit to the time I could do so.

The doctor I saw for my condition was unable to help me at all. I asked the church for prayer, though, and after a few weeks the condition went away, never to return. Though I don’t even recall the exact year of this experience, I have never forgotten the lesson I learned through it. Obedience brings enablement.

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