One September morning almost twenty-eight years ago, my left hand started feeling a little funny, like I'd slept on it wrong. I shook and flexed it while I continued packing my husband's lunch for the day.
After a while, I realized that numbish feeling was spreading up my arm.
Then it started in both feet, spreading upward.
Within three hours, my left arm, both legs, and my lower torso were numb. I couldn't walk on my own. I developed a laundry list of other symptoms.
After multitudes of tests and blood draws over eight days in the hospital, I was diagnosed with transverse myelitis.
Transverse Myelitis occurs when a virus hits the spine, triggering an autoimmune response which causes the body to attack the myelin sheath around the nerves as well as the virus. Symptoms vary depending on where along the spine the attack occurred. If the lower spine is affected, one might experience numbness and tingling. An attack high on the spine, however, could result in losing the ability to breathe, requiring a ventilator.
My spine was affected in the thoracic region. With much prayer and months of physical therapy, I progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane to wobbly steps on my own.
I still have numb areas and odd sensations. But my biggest problem is balance.
I can walk in a straight line on level ground without problems most days. But uneven ground, slopes, and stairs are a challenge.
Sometimes people will offer me an arm for support, which helps. But what helps the most is a handrail, something solid and unmovable.
Oddly, though, I have the most trouble with balance when standing still.
Proprioreception has to do with knowing where your body is in space. Some people might not know where their hands and feet are without looking at them. I don't have that problem, but if I stand still for more than a few minutes I lose balance. Usually I'll inch towards a chair or wall to touch as a reference point to reset my bearings.
I told you all of that to tell you this:
A few years ago when I read 2 Peter 2 in a new-to-me translation, the word "unsteady" jumped out at me because I well knew what being unsteady felt like.
Peter talks in this chapter about those with unsteady souls. Other translations say unstable, unestablished, unsettled. These souls are easily enticed by false teachers (verse 14).
How do false teachers entice these souls? 1 Peter speaks of the false prophets' sensuality, lust, greed, passion, so they "entice by sensual passions" (verse 18). James 1:14 uses the same Greek word for "entice," which carries the idea of baiting, alluring, deceiving, when it says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." They "despise authority" (verse 10). "They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption" (verse 19). They "exploit you with false words" (verse 3). They're blasphemous (verses 10-13).
Probably many of the people who fall away to false teachers are not saved in the first place, but weak or new believers are susceptible as well. A true Christian can't lose his or her salvation, but a believer can get tangled in false doctrines to their own confusion as well as that of everyone in their sphere of influence. But even those of us who think we're strong need to "take heed lest we fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12).
How can we make sure we're not unsteady or unstable spiritually?
By orienting ourselves with the solid, unchanging Word of God.
Rest on the Bible's sure foundation. Earlier in his letter, Peter told his readers that God's Word was more sure than even his experience watching Jesus' transfiguration (2 Peter 1:16-19, KJV).
Know that Scripture comes from God. Peter assured that that "no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
Know God Through His Word. Peter said "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence," which we learn about from "His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust." (1:3-4, NASB). Everything pertaining to life and godliness! The first time this verse impacted me, I was nearly bowled over. There may be many things we don't comprehend about God, but He's given us everything we need to live for Him through knowing Him through His Word.
Don't twist the Scriptures as the unstable do. "There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:15-16). The unsteady twist (wrest in the KJV) the very thing which could stabilize them. We read it in context so we understand its meaning. We don't wrangle it to make it say what we want it to say. We don't adjust it to us: we adjust ourselves to it.
Be watchful. "Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability (2 Peter 3:17).
Keep growing "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (3:18).
Listen to sound teaching. Contrast the characteristics Peter lists of false teachers in 2 Peter to what he says about godly shepherds in 1 Peter 5. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4: "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." We seek to feed our souls His truth rather than feeding our own desires.
Jesus said the one who hears his words and does them is like a man who built his house on a rock which was unshaken by winds and flood waters.
So we watch ourselves, that we're not being led away of wrong desires. We read and listen to God's Word as it's written, in context, not trying to twist it. We listen to pastors and teachers who faithfully proclaim God's Word. We we obey it. We get to know our Savior better and better and remind ourselves of His truth. and we keep growing spiritually. Doing all of these things might bring persecution, which Peter discusses often in both of his letters. But we can trust God to keep us and deliver us. Then we can say, "My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped" (Psalm 17:5).
Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me (Psalm 119:133).
Revised from the archives.
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
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