The Works of God

I have a Google+ account; I don’t know how to use it.

But I really like the fact that Google+ just made it possible for deaf people who use sign language to more easily access one of Google+’s popular features.

I love how God does things like that – takes a service probably created by people who never even think about God and makes it useful beyond its original intentions and limitations.

Maybe even for spreading the gospel!  Wouldn’t that be something!

Here’s a short video on the new function.  You will need to turn on the close captioning so you know what she is communicating. You can do so by clicking on the little (cc) button at the bottom of the video after you click play.

Unless you already know sign language, of course!

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Pat Robertson’s comments about abandoning a marriage when a spouse has Alzheimer’s are reprehensible.  Dr. Russell Moore and Ed Stetzer have both provided helpful responses.

Greg Lucas did an equally helpful thing – he pointed to how God has won, again, in this tweet from Friday:

Thankful to God for using Pat Robertson’s mouth to ignite a firestorm of passion for His glory in disability. (Romans 8:28)

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands, of stories being told today that refute Mr. Robertson’s remarks – stories of faithful men and women who persevered for years in caring for and loving a disabled spouse (ironically, Mr. Robertson references one such man in his remarks).  Those stories may never have been told otherwise.  How many people in that exact situation today are being encouraged that they aren’t crazy and they aren’t alone, that it is both right and worth it to care right to the end.

God uses even thoughtless, sinful remarks to bring glory to his name and to help people living with disability.  He is entirely, eternally amazing!  And he is entirely trustworthy to keep all his promises:”He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

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And thank you to Justin Taylor for pointing to Russell Moore’s post on the atrocious words that came from Pat Robertson:

This week on his television show Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said a man would be morally justified to divorce his wife with Alzheimer’s disease in order to marry another woman. The dementia-riddled wife is, Robertson said, “not there” anymore. This is more than an embarrassment. This is more than cruelty. This is a repudiation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Moore carefully unpacks why Pat Robertson’s words are so vile.

But he ends with a beautiful picture:

Jesus tells us he is present in the weak, the vulnerable, the useless. He is there in the least of these (Matt. 25:31-46). Somewhere out there right now, a man is wiping the drool from an 85 year-old woman who flinches because she think he’s a stranger. No television cameras are around. No politicians are seeking a meeting with them.

But the gospel is there. Jesus is there.

And I would add, somewhere out there is a dad taking care of his adult disabled son, wiping drool from his face, making sure he is clean and fed, never receiving a thank you in return or even acknowledgment that it matters. But the father never quits loving his child.

Is that not like how God the Father treats us?

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Good news!  Another printing of Just the Way I Am by Krista Horning either has or is about to begin.  Since it is being done in Asia, it will be several weeks before copies are available here.

Please pray that all goes well in this new production with a new publisher, and that all the copies would arrive here safely.  From what I understand, the book is exactly the same except for a new publisher page just inside the front cover.

I’ve been hearing stories about how this book has been used – public school (!!) Special Education departments, hospital and clinic waiting rooms, Sunday school classes, pre-marital counseling, foster homes, small groups, and, of course, one-to-one with parents, grandparents and loved ones.

May God be pleased to do it again!  I’ll be sure to make it obvious when copies are again available in the United States.

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Before modern methods of ventilation and gas detection became common, coal miners would take a canary into the mine to warn them about the presence of dangerous gases like methane and carbon monoxide.  As long as the bird could sing, the air was safe for the miners.  If it died – everyone got out as quickly as they could.

People with disabilities, especially children, have played and are playing a similar role for the culture.  When people with disabilities are openly abused and killed, it shows a deep danger for all of society.

Just three examples:

1. The eugenics movement in the United States started against the ‘feeble-minded’ but quickly grew to include the poor and those who were the wrong skin color.
2. Hitler didn’t begin by murdering Jews; he authorized the ‘mercy killing’ of a child with multiple disabilities as his opening effort.
3. Pregnancy ‘reduction’ has existed for some time for women who were pregnant with more than three babies.  Until just a few years ago, however, doctors would generally not reduce pregnancies down to a single child – except when one of the children was identified as having a disability.

The recent New York Times Magazine article, The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy, is shocking – women who have gone through extraordinary financial expense and physical difficulty to conceive a child are intentionally destroying a healthy twin so that they only have to deal with a single baby.

But it is no surprise.  Our babies with disabilities have been warning us for some time that this was coming.  And like the canary, by not getting away from these poisonous, murderous cultural fumes, more children are dying.

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Did you see the stories about Oscar Pistorius, the man without legs below both knees who is running in the World Athletic Championship?

It is a great story of a remarkable athlete.  But some folks don’t like him competing because they feel his prosthetic legs or blades give him an advantage.

Isn’t that great – they’re concerned the guy without legs has an advantage in a running race!  Maybe technology will make that the case someday, but right now it seems like this guy is just a world-class athlete who needs prosthesis.

More importantly, those of us living with disability in our families really do have an advantage over those who are tempted to believe themselves strong and independent!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

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