Be All You Can Be! (Mark 14)

Be All You Can Be! (Mark 14)

Mark 14. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. [nkjv]

Randy Kraus was paralyzed. His left side was useless. But his right hand was good enough to lift the barrel of a .38 to his temple. Once, he'd been a police officer in Fresno, California, and owned a private-eye agency. Once, he'd been strong and able. Now, he felt he was nothing.

His trouble started with Parkinson's disease, but it didn't end there. In July 2002, the 60-year-old Kraus went into the hospital for an operation that implanted electrodes in his brain to control the shaking. But during the operation, he had a stroke. He was paralyzed. The cop, the tough guy, the man who loved golf, "could think, but couldn't move." Transferred to a rehab hospital, Kraus wanted the therapists to give it to him straight. "You may never walk again," they told him. "Maybe you won't even be able to talk."

Once home, he found he couldn't lift a fork or take a drink by himself. Physical therapy was so painful and slow. What did he have to live for? So now Kraus held the gun against his head. Feeling the cold metal on his skin, he began to consider not his pain, but the pain he would cause his wife, daughters and grandchildren. He didn't pull the trigger.

And his exercise physiologist, Andrew Garud, didn't pull any punches with him. "You are where you are", he told him. "The pace would be slow; the pain would be real. But as long as you are alive, you have the ability to get better." After three months of working with Garud, Kraus wanted to see if he could stand. He could. Then he took three steps, sat down and cried like a baby.

One step, as they say, led to another. Next he managed a short walk along the edge of a boxing ring in the health club where they worked out. It was the hardest fight of Kraus's life. People at the gym cheered him on. Garud kept saying he could do more.

Today, Kraus can walk up to 50 feet with no assistance, brush his teeth, shave himself, and uses an eletric wheelchair to enjoy an active lifestyle. He finds great pride in helping local patients find their path to recovery, just like he found his. He has become an inspiration to many.

Sometimes we can mistakenly think that success is receiving world wide recognition for your talents and achievements. We can think that success equals money in the bank, a degree on the wall, a top 10 hit. But Jesus' definition of success is found in this story of the lady with the anointing oil. He praised her because she did all she could!

God expects no more from us than doing ALL we can do.

For each of us that will be different because we all have different capacities. The question we need to ask ourselves is, "Have I done what God has asked of me to the best of my ability?"

Sometimes we set the bar too low. Left on our own we often take the easy road. We all need at least one person in our life like Andrew Garud. Someone who will speak the truth and urge us on. Someone who believes in us and someone who won't settle for any less than our best.

John Wesley once said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as long as ever you can."

Simply by doing the most insignificant task to the best of your ability, you could inspire a whole generation.