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Since I got a stroller I've noticed that people often think I'm older than I am. For some reason people seem to connect disability with old age, and they see the stroller and not the person who is using it. I am not old and won't be for a good while, and before I had a stroller I was often taken for ten years younger than I am. Now bus drivers talk to me like they talk to ladies in their eighties, and one day, when I had a meal in a cafe, I discovered afterwards that they had not charged me the full price. Presumably they saw the stroller and not the preson, and thought I was a pensioner!
Another thing about disability is that people seem to think that physical disability equals mental and spiritual disability as well. I've been told that God can't use me because I'm ill. That was before I even had a stroller. Of course that's not true, where do you find that in the bible? He not only CAN use me, he DOES use me. He has given me gifts and ministries and abilities just like anyone who is not ill or disabled. OK, so I need help in some areas - a lift, because I can't drive and can't walk far, or help to lift something, for instance - but so does everyone else. Not necessarily in the same areas, but so what, we're here to help each other anyway, aren't we? Isn't that part of being brothers and sisters in Christ?
Yes, I know, and fully believe, that Jesus heals, I have also experienced it. After 25 years of migraine I was healed. I was born with one leg shorter that the other, and my leg grew as I was prayed for. I could go on. But he doesn't always do things our way, or when we want it, and I really do not need the burden of being judged to be a greater sinner somehow, or lacking in faith, or under God's judgment, because I haven't had an instant healing. When the disciples asked Jesus if the blind man had sinned, or if his parents had, Jesus said no, it's so that God may be glorified. When he was healed, God WAS glorified, and indeed still is, when people all over the world read that story again 2000 years later! But God is also glorified, though in a less spectacular way, when someone ill or disabled turn to him daily for grace to get up, do their job, serve him with their gifts. I need God's help for a lot of things that others just do in their own strength without thinking about it. Without God's grace I would not have been able to work for so long. I was once expected to spend my life going in and out of hospitals and not to be able to do much else. Well, I haven't!
If you have a prison ministry, like I do, you can't help noticing how many people in that kind of ministry have a disability or a permanent illness. I have a friend who is practically bedridden most of the time. She was called by God some years ago to start a prison ministry which, in just a few years, has expanded to help prisoners and their families in many countries all over the world. Is her life not glorifying God? Can anyone say that God can not use her?
A brother in my church was born with muscular atrophy and all his organs on the wrong side in his body, e.g heart on his right side etc. He has been in a wheel chair all his life and any infection is dangerous to him. The doctors didn't give him more than 20 years of life, but he is now about 50, a very strong man spiritually who has served in this church for many years. Physically he needs help with absolutely everything. His life, in spite of his severe disability, is a miracle, and is definitely giving glory to God.
There are many others.
We need to learn to see the person, the child of God with their unique personality, gifts and ministries, not just their sickness or disability. If we can not accomodate people who are ill or disabled in our churches, then not only are they suffering, but so is the whole of the Body of Christ!
Can the eye say to the ear "I do not need you?"
In some ways we're all disabled - we all have needs, areas where we need help. God has put us all together so that we can meet each others' needs. That's why we have different gifts and ministries, so that someone is equipped by God to deal with every little need in His church. Isn't that great? We can all serve Him together, rejoice in oneanother's uniqueness and in giving glory to God together.
Wow! Isn't God just great? |
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