The Child Who Couldn’t Walk (and Then Did)

I just wrote a piece for the Gospel Coalition entitled “We’re All Over-Protected Now.” I tackled our need for risk and a bigger vision of God, themes I spell out in my book Risky Gospel.

In the TGC essay, I got to share this powerful story:

I recently heard a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary administrator tell me of a child he knew who was adopted by a godly family. The child had been told for years that he couldn’t walk. So he didn’t. He was carried everywhere. When he came into this Christian home, the father thought to himself, This little guy can walk. He may not dunk a basketball in the future, but he can walk. He began encouraging the boy to do so. Within days, the child walked up the family’s stairs. A lifetime of low expectations, of zero risk, undone in a few days’ time.

Here’s the whole thing.

I think this moving anecdote illustrates where many churches and believers are today. We think we can’t make any progress, or take any big steps of faith, and so we don’t.

But the good news is this: through the power of Christ, we can. You can. I can.