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Archive for May, 2010

One of these things is not like (most) others

Posted in commentary, News on May 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Tim Challies and David Murray are friends of Desiring God who recently began their own Podcast at their Facebook site, Connected Kingdom: Connecting Truth & Life in a Digital Age (also can be accessed through iTunes).

Their most recent podcast focused on disability and the church!  Even better, they had two dads of children with disabilities as guests:  Justin Reimer, founder of The Elisha Foundation, and Paul Martin, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto.

About ten minutes into their conversation I just leaned back and enjoyed listening to four masculine voices engaging on this issue, brothers in the cause for the sake of our children and the church.  That is unusual.

In fact, I cannot remember ever listening to a podcast or radio program on disability and the church that included only men (my memory could be faulty).  On top of that, men who love and trust God!

In terms of service, women dominate the field of disability, at least in these childhood years.  I am grateful to God for all the women involved in Paul’s life – from doctors to therapists to aides to educators.  And I am grateful for all the women God has called to serve in the ministry at Bethlehem, providing access to dozens of families by serving individual children.  It is wonderful to experience such treasure from God!

And I pray for men to get involved, and God has provided.  I’m praying for more.  So, to have men engaging this issue seriously and hopefully in this podcast, that is a gift to me, and to God’s church.

Thank you, Tim and David!

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How to use Facebook for the glory of God

Posted in commentary on May 4, 2010| 1 Comment »

A woman I know quite well used Facebook recently to bring glory to God:

5am breakfast of oral contrast – berry flavor – in preparation for the 7:30 CT scan. The scan went fine, now waiting for Paulie to get home so we can go to Hannah’s softball game. I have already “passed from death to life.” John 5:24.

She’s a great example to me to hold all temporary things loosely and all eternal things tightly.  And she also reminded me that Facebook can be used to bring glory to God.

I’m grateful to God that she is my wife.

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“How will my son be saved?”

Posted in commentary, Scripture on May 3, 2010| 1 Comment »

Many of us follow Greg Lukas’ blog, Wrestling with an Angel.  His post last Thursday considers the question about salvation for our children with significant cognitive disabilities:

I have poured over God’s promises like a doctor searching for a cure of the deadly disease in his own child, looking for hope and confidence in this grey area of my son’s life. There are many passages that give hints to the question I pose, but in the end I believe the passage in Ephesians 2 brings the most peace to my own soul—that Jake’s state is really no different from my own.

I recommend the entire post.

I sure hope to meet this brother someday!

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“The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. . .”

Posted in Scripture on May 2, 2010| 2 Comments »

A friend prayed with and for me on Friday afternoon, and used his reflections on 1 Corinthians 12:22 to orient his prayer:

The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. . .

Indispensable means “absolutely necessary, essential, or requisite; incapable of being disregarded or neglected.”  That’s amazing to think about in this culture that so quickly seeks to destroy our children with disabilities through abortion, or relegates adults with disabilities to the very fringes of society.

His prayer was a very encouraging reflection on the worth and impact of my son on my family and so many other people.  God did that, for me and for him.

God does that over and over again in his word:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Thanks be to God for his excellent word and sovereignty over all things!

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“God loves me just the way I am, too.” The impact of Just the Way I Am

Posted in Book Commentary, Helpful things on May 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

I’m happy to introduce Carol Steinbach to you as she writes today about the privilege of sharing Just the Way I Am with a young friend.  Thank you, Carol, for this example!  I hope that many of you, as you receive and experience this book, will share your stories as well.

Last night after work I had supper with some very dear friends who have two children, Wellsley (6) and Graham (4). I brought the family a copy of Just the Way I Am.

Before supper the dad sat on the couch and read the book to Wells. As they read through the book, she was surprised and excited — one of the families in the book is in their small group and she recognized pictures of “her friend Andrew!” After her dad finished reading the book to her, she sat with it on her lap, paging through it, reading parts of it to herself. When she was done I heard her comment, “God loves me just the way I am, too.” Later that evening she asked her mom to read the book to her again. Then she brought the book to me and we snuggled down together to look at it.

At the end of the book, after the “Krista’s Story” section, are some discussion questions. Question 3 is, “What can I do to befriend a person with a disability?” Wells and her mom and I talked about it together, and she came up with some ideas: sit next to someone at school, smile, be friendly, don’t stare.

Question 4 is, “What talents and gifts do people with disabilities have?” She didn’t quite grasp it, so we opened the book to the first picture and I asked her, “What is this little girl good at?”

As we went through the book page by page her answers amazed me. “She’s good at spinning.” “They are good at being friends.” “He’s good at smiling.” “They’re good at loving each other.” “He’s good at letting his brother feed him.” “She’s good at laughing.” “He’s good at trusting his daddy.” “He’s good at soccer” (actually wheelchair basketball, but I didn’t correct her). “He’s good at playing.”

On page 25 there is a poignant photo of a young man sitting alone on a broken tree limb. The text on the facing page says, “Even when I am sad and hurting, God is with me.” Wells thought for a bit and said “He’s good at wanting a friend.”

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