Beat up, not beaten

The other night I watched the remarkable interview with Gabby Giffords--the young congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in the head about 10 months ago. Diane Sawyer spoke with Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, about her miraculous recovery from an injury to her brain that is fatal 90% of the time and in nearly all other cases would leave the person with virtually no ability to speak, move, etc. Yet, what a fighter she has been, with her husband by her side, in recovering the ability to walk, albeit slowly and with great difficulty, sing, and speak through the tireless efforts of therapists. Her speech is halting and oftentimes in single words or very short sentences, but she understands and clearly communicates. What a battle--and a long term at that--which requires her to relearn everything with a brain that has suffered severe damage.

I couldn't help but think of how much she has lost: A rewarding and powerful job. Her athletic ability (and she was apparently very active and enjoyed sports). Her powers of speech and intellect--while she still has them, they are diminished to some extent. Her freedom of movement--of being able to drive a car and go where she wants to go when she wants to go. Perhaps the opportunity to bear a child (she and her husband were about to undergo in vitro just before the shooting). Her freedom from fear. Her time (which is now largely devoted to therapy and just trying to recover those abilities that we all take for granted). So much lost--at least in the short term.

And yet in watching her, you sense that she is focused hard not upon what has been lost but upon what can be regained and upon what remains. Her husband. Her family. Her fighting spirit. Her life. One particular exchange really stuck with me. Her husband, Mark Kelly, spoke of rushing to the hospital when she was apparently really having a very hard time and experiencing real despair at what she was facing. When he arrived, she wept, "I'm beaten. I'm beaten." And with such wisdom, tenderness, and yet strength, he told her, "No, not beaten. Beat up, but not beaten. You may be beat up but you're not beaten."

How I have thought of that the past few days. Aren't we all beat up in some way? Beat up by struggles with children or lost jobs or poor health or ill loved ones or our own sinful habits we can't seem to break. Beat up by discouragement or fear or failure.

But as believers, we may be beat up, but we're not beaten. His promises still stand throughout eternity. His power remains unabated and undiminished. His love is forever deeper than the oceans and wider than the breadth of the universe. His infinite amazing grace still covers us all at our very worst. We may be beat up, but with Christ we are never ever beaten. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." Heb. 10:23 He is faithful. Even at our most faithless, He is still and forever more faithful.

So today, I thank Him who is faithful. I thank Him for His promises that will stand firm for all of eternity. I thank Him that it's not about our strength or goodness or perfection or power. It's all about His. It's all about Him. And He will ever be faithful. He may have been beat up for us at the cross, but, boy, He was not beaten! He beat the power of sin and death for all eternity so that we need never ever be beaten. So to our glorious sin-beater, be all the glory.