Enabling

Years ago, as a homeschooler, one of my favorite things to do with my children was to read and to tell them stories. Using different voices, I'd often give the character(s) personality just to get them laughing and add character to the story. Stories have a way of bringing a thought or an idea to life and giving it meaning and sometimes a greater degree of understanding.

One of our favorite storytellers (authors) during that time was Gary Richmond. He used stories about animals in the zoo to teach us about ourselves and deepen our understanding of God. The book from which I read to them had been lost until I stumbled across it a few months ago in the Thrift Store here at Keswick. I was so excited I couldn't wait to open it and scan the once familiar pages.

The first story I came across was a perfect fit for a seminar I was to do on the topic of "Enabling." I meant to share the story during that seminar session, but unfortunately I wasn't able to, due to time constraints.

Today, I'm going to share the heart of a particular story depicting one facet of love, and hopefully give you a picture of LOVE, which is the most compelling facet of enabling. 

L.O.V.E! Love is what moves us; stirs us; compels us; to do the hard thing(s) that we must at times, in order to save the life of a loved one.

The gist of the story is a mother giraffe that is about to give birth while she is standing up! The distance from where the baby will fall to the ground is a whopping ten feet. Yep - ten feet from the womb to the solid, hard earth below! Once this newborn plummets to earth, within seconds he is on his shaky, wobbly feet. Mama takes a brief look and then does the unthinkable; she kicks her baby and sends him "sprawling head over heels."  Baby giraffe struggles to his feet, likely wondering, "What's up with Mom?  Why, in the world did she do that?!"  With barely any time to stand up, baby giraffe is kicked again and falls back to the ground.  The process was repeated again and again!

Now in our finite thinking it doesn't make a lick of sense. What possible reason could there be for Mama to appear to do harm to her struggling calf while he was down? While the reason is really quite simple, it is nonetheless difficult to imagine...especially as it relates to us as human mothers; mothers made in the image of God; mothers whose every thought will be to guard and protect our babies -young or old- from harm.

When we consider enabling in the context of the giraffe story, we have to see a bigger picture. Just like the giraffe calf, our children, our loved ones, have a very real enemy who has one goal in mind and only one. His goal is to seek, devour, and destroy; to render those who are God's useless and ineffective for Kingdom work. He doesn't care how he does it. 

In the context of ministry here at America's KESWICK, he (the enemy) has used drugs, alcohol, and every conceivable form of chemical and behavioral dependence to accomplish his goal. As mothers, sisters, etc., we have to choose to be willing to do whatever it takes to help our loved ones stand on their feet...even if it means doing the hard thing.

So, to answer the question why the mama giraffe knocks her baby down is this: she knocks him down so he remembers how to get up. "In the wild (in the world) baby would need to get up as soon as possible to follow the herd. The mother needs the herd, too. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and hunting dogs would all enjoy young giraffe flesh. They'd get it, too, if the mother didn't teach her baby to quickly get up and get with it."

No time for babying and making excuses, or "enabling" him to stay down because it's oh, so hard to get up and stand on his own two feet. It was and is - do or die.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." James 1: 2-3

Stephanie

"A View From the Zoo" - Gary Richmond