A Leg to Stand On

My An Arkie's Faith column from the October 4, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse.

I walked into Dr. Hefley’s office in Little Rock with a few minutes to spare before my appointment. Just a minute after checking in, I was called to the door leading to the exam rooms. The X-ray technician led me to the x-ray room and took images of my knees. When he was finished, I was directed to an exam room to wait for the doctor.

As I waited, I wondered what the process would be. I was changing Orthopedic doctors, and this was my first visit. A man in scrubs walked into the room and said, “My name is Kenneth Weaver, and I am a physician assistant. Dr. Hefley couldn’t be here today, so I will examine you.”

My heart sank a little. Would this make the process take longer? Would I have to make more trips to Little Rock? I had been suffering from knee pain for several years and finally decided to have the knee replacement done. Now that I was ready, how long would it take before the surgery would be scheduled?

 While I was lost in my thoughts, the doctor examined the X-rays on his computer. When he had finished, he turned to me and said, “You don’t have a leg to stand on.” 

I know my left knee has been in bad shape for a long time. Three years ago, my X-rays showed that it was bone on bone. My previous orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bean, told me the answer was a complete knee replacement. I resisted the idea, and he said to me that when it hurt bad enough, I would get it replaced. But I hadn’t realized how bad my right knee was. 

The doctor said, “We need to schedule knee replacement surgery as soon as possible.” 

“I have a fiftieth high school reunion to attend,” I told him. “And I have tickets to see the Beach Boys in concert. But after that, I am ready.”

“On your way out, talk to the girl who does the scheduling, and let’s get you a new knee so you will have a leg to stand on,” he replied.

When I told the scheduler that I was ready to schedule the surgery any time after the Beach Boys concert, she put me on the schedule for the day after the concert. As I write this, it is the day before my knee replacement surgery. By this time tomorrow, I should have a brand-new knee.

To prepare for the surgery, I had to travel to Little Rock for a pre-op physical. Passing the physical was the final hurdle to getting relief from the pain I had been experiencing. The doctor requires that I be off all pain medications before the surgery, including arthritis medication. My pain levels over the last couple of weeks have been high, and I have had extreme difficulty climbing stairs and getting in and out of chairs. I am looking forward to having a leg to stand on.

As I limp around with a cane and must have help to get out of my chair, I think about a passage in Ecclesiastes 12:2,3 (ICB). “When you become old, the light from the sun, moon and stars will seem dark to you. It will seem as if the rain clouds never go away. At that time your arms will lose their strength. Your strong legs will become weak and bent.”

What will it mean for me to have a leg to stand on? In a physical sense, it will be a relief for me to have a new knee. But when we use the phrase, “He doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” what do we mean?

If you say that someone doesn’t have a leg to stand on, you mean that a statement or claim they have made cannot be justified or proven. There is no evidence, support, or justification for one's argument or actions, or they have no chance of success. This metaphor dates from the sixteenth century and applies the lack of physical support to an idea or hypothesis. The Elizabethan satirist Thomas Nashe in The Unfortunate Traveler, written in 1594 stated, “Faine he would have pacht out a polt-foot tale, but God knows it had not one true leg to stand on.”

How many of our beliefs and claims can be proven, and how often, when we speak, do we not have a leg to stand on? I have often thought I could accomplish God’s will for my life with my own effort. I think I still have one good leg to please God with, and I believe I can accomplish His purposes without His power. I hobble my way through life, seeking to walk the Christian walk.

I’m sure that I am not alone in this. Paul thought he could be righteous through his efforts. Only when God knocked him off his high horse and had a face-to-face encounter with him did Paul realize he didn’t have a leg to stand on. He later wrote, “For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing.” Ephesians 2:8 (VOICE)

We must admit we do not have a “leg to stand on.” The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to want to please and serve God. We must recognize our weaknesses and remember we are dependent on God’s grace moment by moment and step by step.

Isaiah 64:6 (GW) tells us that “all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind.” Why would we rely on saving ourselves when God tells us that in our own works, we don’t have a leg to stand on?

Gentle Reader, in a beautiful poetic passage in Psalms 139:9,10 (NIV), David wrote, “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” The only way we can navigate through life's pitfalls is if God guides us and holds us up. Otherwise, we don’t have a leg to stand on.