Learning to Lean
Learning to Lean
John Stallings was born in Georgia in 1938. He eventually became an evangelist, a pastor, and a hymn writer. There came a traumatic period in his life when he faced a storm of challenges that nearly destroyed his spirit. His faith — always so strong — wavered and almost collapsed. Then one day the Holy Spirit whispered to him, and he wrote this inspired hymn:
The joy I can't explain fills my heart,
Since the day I made Jesus my King;
His blessed Holy Spirit is leading my way,
He's teaching and I'm learning to lean.
There's glorious vict'ry each day now for me,
Since I found His peace so serene;
He helps me with each task, if only I ask;
Every day now I'm learning to lean.
"Sad, broken-hearted, at an altar I knelt,
I found peace that was so serene
And all that He asks is a child-like trust
And a heart that is learning to lean.
Chorus:
"Learning to lean, learning to lean,
I'm learning to lean on Jesus.
Finding more power than I've ever dreamed,
I'm learning to lean on Jesus."
In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV the Apostle Paul wrote these brave words: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
At age 89 I can relate to this personally. Aging is an existential reality. The older we get, the more threatening it becomes. I can viscerally experience my body failing and fading. The loss of hearing, the loss of sight, the evidence of “cognitive slippage” (which in my case is more of a free-fall than a “slip”)! I have concluded that, even if the body and the mind completely degenerate, something we call the “soul” remains, and remains steadfastly pointed toward Heaven. That’s why I think St. Paul wrote, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
Paul himself would go on to experience what he called “a thorn in my flesh”. No one is quite sure what that was, but it inhibited his ministry. Perhaps it was malaria he might have contracted along the way which could account for fevers and near-blindness. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NIV)
So each of us perhaps has our own thorn in the flesh. We fear that it has the potential to destroy us, to erase who we are. Yet the Apostle learned to lean on the Lord, aware that “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV) That’s where our strength will come from too. That’s why John Stallings could write
I'm learning to lean on Jesus.
Finding more power than I've ever dreamed,
I'm learning to lean on Jesus."
