The Works of God

With all the doctoring that we have been doing lately for Paul, I have found I don’t have any mental space for my normal reading schedule.  The result: The little number in black that documents my unread personal emails is sitting at over 1,300 (thankfully my work email is mostly caught up!).  The books I began over the summer have mostly been untouched for several weeks.  My google reader keeps telling me I have more than 1,000 unread posts waiting for me.  I haven’t used my electronic access to scholarly journals in weeks.

This isn’t normal for me as I love to read.  That space in my head normally dedicated to this issue of disability and the Bible has been swallowed up in this medical issue for Paul.

But it is a great example of how finite I am – which leads to worshiping the God who is not limited in any way!

And I’m grateful for books that let me read helpful chunks about who God is in smaller bites – like Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

Yes, it is more than 1,200 pages long.  Yes, it looks intimidating.

But when I need something to get me oriented on who God is, this book is very helpful.  It is organized, written well, and covers an extraordinary amount of material.  It should be on every Christian’s shelf.

Here’s an example of something that helped me yesterday:

“Wisdom: God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals. This definition goes beyond the idea of God knowing all things and specifies that God’s decisions about what he will do are always wise decisions: that is, they always will bring about the best results (from God’s ultimate perspective), and they will bring about those results through the best possible means. . .

Yet we must also remember that God’s wisdom is not entirely communicable: we can never fully share God’s wisdom (Rom. 11:33). In practical terms, this means that there will frequently be times in this life when we will not be able to understand why God allowed something to happen.  Then we have simply to trust him and go on obeying his wise commands for our lives: “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19; cf. Deut. 29:29; Prov. 3:5-6). God is infinitely wise and we are not, and it pleases him when we have faith to trust his wisdom even when we do not understand what he is doing.” (Grudem, pp. 193, 195)

Books like these are no substitute for the Word of God.  But faithful men like Wayne Grudem certainly help keep me oriented to who God is and who I am in relation to him.

Particularly that He is absolutely trustworthy, no matter the situation or circumstance in which I find myself.

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While I was away the team from Desiring God posted a short video of Pastor John talking about Just the Way I Am by Krista Horning.

I praise God for Pastor John’s persistent, consistent message about who God is!

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This year’s Desiring God national conference includes many new features, including nearly 100,000 square feet of bookstore, exhibit, and seminar space that we didn’t have before.

It also means that registration opens for the conference much earlier than in years past.

So, please plan on coming early as a pair of authors will be signing their books at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 1:  Krista Horning and Randy Alcorn.

I’m excited this pairing is happening as they make so much sense together.  Just the Way I Am by Krista Horning is one of the clearest articulations of God’s sovereignty, goodness, mercy and kindness over disability that has ever been created.  And it is beautiful!

Randy Alcorn has been a champion for not-yet-born babies and the most vulnerable of God’s human creations.

I hope to see many of you there.

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There are some advantages to having a child who is profoundly, multiply disabled.  One of those advantages is being able to ignore most of what is written on any one of his disabilities.

Last month Sarah wrote asking if I had read the book, Finding Your Child on the Autism Spectrum by Dr Laura Hendrickson.  I had not heard of this book, and haven’t even had the opportunity to ask Sarah about her recommendation.

But it made me realize that I have not read a disability-specific book in several years.  When Paul was first born I was reading all about blindness and accommodations for blind children.  When autism entered the picture, I started consuming information on autism.

And I soon discovered that most books about blindness and childhood development dealt with typically-developing children who are blind.  Most books on autism did not deal with blindness.  Throw in cognitive disabilities and the choices become even more limited.

So, Dianne and I live in mostly-uncharted territory with a few other parents.  That’s not a complaint or even a lament; it is simply our situation.

And it also means we get to stay out of some really contentious areas of debate, like the impact of diet on autism, or particular forms of therapy for autism.  I just get to hang out with other parents of disabled kids rather than compare notes, or get into discussions about what therapy might be better or worse than another.

So, for the books I read on disability, I mostly focus on disability, the Bible and theology.   Then I focus on disability and culture in the blogs, magazines or news articles that show up in my news alerts or RSS feed.

Next week we will be on vacation and I hope to get through a big chunk of Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological  Anthropology, and Ethics by Hans Reinders.  I’d like to provide a review when I’m done, but I’m not exactly sure what would be most helpful for those who read this blog.

• So I’m hoping you might comment on how you choose the resources you read or watch on the disability(s) your family is dealing with.  How do you choose what books to read on disability?  What makes for a ‘good’ book on disability that is worth reading and considering?
• If you take recommendations or read book reviews, what do you look for that encourages or discourages you from choosing a resource on disability?  What makes for a ‘good’ review that is helpful in making a decision about a resource?

I’m not looking for recommendations for books, but in the how and why you make decisions about books.

Part of my reason for asking is that I’ve been asked to review a book for the Bethlehem bookstore.  If it is worthwhile for Bethlehem to stock that book, I would like to provide a review that might encourage people to buy it.

I look forward to your comments and observations!

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