God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen!
One of my favourite movies of all times, is a film called “The King’s Speech” starring Colin Firth. It is based on a true story, telling the tale of King George V of England, who ascended the throne when his brother Edward abdicated to marry a divorcee. This was on the cusp of World War II and the King was required as part of his position to give many many speeches to his people (including over the radio) to keep them hopeful and informed during the four long years of warfare…
One of the reasons I like this film – apart from the excellent acting and the story itself – is that the King had an exceptionally difficult problem when he ascended the throne – he had a severe stutter. In those days science was not advanced enough to understand the cause of stuttering and was not advanced enough to understand how to work therapeutically to correct a stutter.
And so various ridiculous therapies were tried, including smoking cigarettes to relax the jaw and throat and tongue – supposedly.
In the end, an Australian amateur actor was able to befriend the King and worked on exercises to help him to grow in confidence and ability to be able to speak with relative fluidity.
A stutter is actually caused by insufficient myelin covering of the lining of the nerves that direct speech from the brain. Now some children will outgrow a stutter as the myelin develops as they age, and others – scientists have not worked out why – will not. If a child with a stutter is treated with speech therapy before they turn seven years old, they are likely to speech without stuttering for the remainder of their lives. However, if a child is NOT treated prior to this age, they are likely to stutter for the remainder of their life. Occasionally, even after treatment, a stutter can re-occur during adolescence – but this is rare.
When my eldest son began to speak – about six months later, when he began saying multiple words together – I started to hear a stutter. By the time he was almost three years old, he had the most severe presentation of a stutter that it was possible to have. He would block sounds and was unable to even speak at all much of the time. His younger brother had a similar experience, though the stutter was only moderate. And even their sister – and it is very rare to stutter as a female – stuttered, though her presentation was mild.
And this meant a lot of speech therapy.
And I have been thinking about my children and about King George V today because those stutters sure did make life difficult at the time. But more importantly, I have been thinking about them as I have been thinking about Moses… Moses – who was called by God to negotiate the release of the Israelite Slaves from bondage in Egypt, had a severe stutter. And STILL out of all the souls – God chose HIM…
And not much changed over thousands of years. When Christ chose the apostles, He did not chose the most educated or successful. He chose the ones He wanted…
“And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons: Simon whom he surnamed Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Mark 3:13-19).
And I have been thinking about that today – for God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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