The Works of God

I’m sure The Wall Street Journal thought they were merely posting a cute story about unusual job interview strategies. But it says something profound about how much of the world views physical ability as the benchmark of our value as human beings.

Rexrode and Ng’s article, Thanks for the Job Application! Shall We Begin at the Bench Press, begins with an investment banker who endured an interview that included a run, pull-ups and burpees. It all ended well for him, “He made the cut, though. Mr. Harris is now chief financial officer of the food company, aptly named Health Warrior, Inc.”

There are plenty of jobs that require a certain level of physical fitness: police and emergency responders; members of the military; and the like. Of course we want those men and women to meet high standards for physical ability!

I doubt, though, that being a chief financial officer requires doing squats with the boss. Yet how else should we interpret his physical abilities helping him ‘make the cut’ for that job?

Even those without physical disabilities were put off, like the woman who wore high heels to her interview only to discover her potential boss turned it into an hour long ‘walking interview.’ It worked out for her as well; she decided she didn’t want to work for someone like that.

But imagine you have a moderate to severe mobility disability and have the eduction and experience that makes you a qualified applicant, possibly the best applicant. This boss clearly finds it acceptable to not warn candidates about his interview strategy. Does anyone really believe that he would also NOT hold a person’s disability against him or her?

At a time when technology is opening up many more jobs for people with physical disabilities, employers like the ones mentioned in the article are creating new artificial standards. Unspoken, of course, because those standards are against the law. Or maybe they are just ignorant of how they are ruled by their own biases.

And, ironically, it is against their best interests. Those unstated standards are more likely to result in a workplace made up entirely of people just like them, creating a workplace that becomes stagnant, insular and unresponsive over time.

Making people aware of the value and inherent dignity of people with disabilities isn’t the primary reason I bring my son to church, but it is one of the benefits he brings by his presence. Every week, my pastor opens God’s word and rightly points us to a sovereign, loving, just, merciful God. And every week that he’s there, a young man with multiple disabilities requires the people around him to acknowledge that the God of ‘all things’ of John 1:2 or Romans 8:28 and ‘his workmanship’ of Ephesians 2:10 includes Paul Knight. No mistake, no accident; sovereign design.

His isn’t a normal life, however that is defined, but it is a life God made. I’m glad to be part of a local body of believers who don’t just acknowledge his existence but embrace him as part of their community, who miss him when he isn’t there, and who give glory to God for his life. And that is accruing eternal rewards for the people of Bethlehem, unlike the unwise practices of a few business leaders who just don’t get it.