5 Spoonfuls Of Courage Sample

Courage to Come to the Great Physician

There was an old Texas rancher who had no use for doctors and medicines. One chilly morning the old man felt under the weather. His wife encouraged him to go see his physician.  He replied, “You’re better off buying some snake oil from one of those travelin’ salesmen.” 

He strode out to his barn to feed his cattle. The frugal rancher had set an electric wire around the inside of the fence to keep his cows in the pen. He accidentally tripped and touched the electric wire. A jolt of electricity pulsed through his body and the current threw him to the ground. When he got up, he noticed something. Although sore, he felt a renewed sense of energy. The rancher brushed it off, finished his work and soon forgot about the whole ordeal.

Time passed. The stubborn old cowpuncher could barely make it to the corral each morning without gasping for air. Once again, he stumbled and touched the electric wire. After the current surged through his body, he felt better. His shortness of breath improved. The shock gave him energy, helped him breathe, and made him feel twenty years younger. 

This odd practice went on for months until the man was hospitalized for the first time in his life. 

The cardiologist looked at his electrocardiogram with disbelief. “Have you been feeling tired or experiencing shortness of breath?” The Texan confessed everything to the doctor, his self-prescribed shock therapies, and his renewed sense of energy. 

“You have atrial fibrillation. Your diseased heart is beating out of rhythm,” said the cardiologist.

The do-it-yourself rancher had been shocking his heart back into rhythm. But pressing the reset button on the heart’s electrical system can be dangerous: sometimes the shock makes the old ticker stop ticking—forever. 

If we’re honest with ourselves, we are like the old rancher. We sense something is wrong, yet we can’t pinpoint the problem. While we self-prescribe our own remedies, our diseased hearts beat out of rhythm. Let’s place our hearts in the competent hands of the One who can make us whole. God is our Great Physician. He knows our needs, has the answers, and sees the best way to cure our maladies.