The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

Today’s blog post is contributed by David Trotta:

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:12)

Over the last year or so, I have been visiting a dear friend who suffers from a debilitating disease that has crippled his body.  It is very difficult for him to perform even the most basic bodily functions, like walking, talking, and feeding himself.  Things that we take for granted every day.

I visit to encourage him, but I’m the one that always leaves encouraged.  Encouraged because he shows me that it’s possible to love God passionately even when the world around you is upside down and you are going through incredible hardship.

Even in the midst of great hardship, my friend has not lost his love for God.  He expresses the same love and passion for his King that he had when I knew him years ago before the sickness ravished his body.

There is a fragrance about him, the fragrance of someone who is no longer held prisoner by the physical attachments to the things of this world.  Like a bird released from its cage, his spirit has been released to worship God in a way many of us will never experience.

He still prays for physical healing, along with so many people that love him, but in reality, he is already healed.  Healed from the emotional attachments to this world.

Some day he is going to leave his body.  It will no longer hold him back.  The shackles will be taken off.  But as I write this, I realize he isn’t shackled at all.  He is freer than most people who don’t have any physical limitations.

As A. W. Tozer wrote about in the Pursuit of God, my friend has learned the “blessedness of possessing nothing.”