Keep us outwardly & inwardly

This weekend, my family gathered for a funeral. My mom’s cousin, Kenon, passed away five years after having a stroke that left him without the ability to walk or care for himself. He was 58 years old.

Kenon struggled with alcoholism for most of his adult life, which put strains on his relationships and ability to work. After a particularly bad stretch, he detoxed and went to rehab to get clean. He reestablished his relationships with his children and with his Savior, regularly attending church. Less than a year later the stroke happened, taking away his power to work and care for his children.

The idea of us asking God to defend our bodies from all adversities is a tough one for me: we all ask for it, but who do I know whose bodies are free from adversities? My back hurts every morning when I wake up, but does that count? Do I, should I, consider that adversity in comparison to what Kenon went through?

Kenon’s journey to sobriety, along with the same journeys of others in my family, has left me well-versed in the language of 12-step programs. And as I look at the beginning of this week’s Collect, I’m reminded of the first three steps of “the program”:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. 
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

What folks who have been at their lowest point understand best is what Thomas Cramner stated so clearly in the first Anglican Book of Common Prayer almost 400 years ago: we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. While we can do our best to mitigate risk, there’s absolutely nothing we can do to protect ourselves from physical adversity or evil thoughts popping into our heads. And while it may not always be part of God’s plan to keep us from all of these adversities, it is only His will that can keep us safe from them.

So we pray. We pray for God to defend us outwardly and inwardly. And while the times we were struck by adversities might be easier to bring to mind, let us focus on all of the times that He has been gracious enough to let us be healthy, because it is only God that can help us.