The Works of God

Memorial Day exists to remember those who died in military service.  It is good and right to remember the sacrifices made, and their impact on society as well as individual families.

I think it is also appropriate to recognize all those who are disabled because of their service, a number many times greater than those who die in combat.

The Department of Defense has reported slightly more than 4,400 military deaths in Iraq as of May 28.  Numbers of those disabled in this war are harder to come by.  But as of 2008, about 181,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were receiving disability benefits from the Federal government.

When disability comes, often suddenly and violently, on mostly healthy young men, the response can be one of intense questioning of the goodness and sovereignty of God.

Yet, God’s word demonstrates both his sovereign intentionality in our lives and the opportunity for hope, no matter the situation:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  Jeremiah 29:11-13

Nothing ever has or ever will catch God by surprise in our individual lives and circumstances:

In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.  Psalm 139:16

And no situation that results in disability, whether from a genetic anomaly, a sickness or disease, an accident or an act of war, has the final word on the glorious reality that awaits those who are trusting in Jesus:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

So, thank you to all veterans and those currently in active military service.  May Christ’s church welcome you gladly, helping you see the glorious goodness of God in all circumstances.  Especially those of you living with disability because of your service.

Read Full Post »

At Desiring God every morning we pause to have devotions.  We have been going through Proverbs verse by verse for the past several months.

Yesterday morning, we started in Proverbs 30, and these verses jumped out at me:

The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.

I understand weariness.  I expect that you do as well.  And I understand feeling ‘too stupid to be a man.’

Why are those of us dealing disability weary so often?  Because it doesn’t stop.

And God in his infinite mercy included verse five in Proverbs 30:

Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

EVERY word!  The omnipotent creator of the universe says he will be our shield – if we take refuge in him.  Not if we perform perfectly.  Not if we muster up enough strength on our own to do the next hard thing.  But if we take refuge in him who knows how weak and weary and stupid and unwise we are.  What a comfort!

Then, later in the day I read a Facebook entry from Justin Reimer, creator and executive director of The Elisha Foundation.  This is an organization worth paying attention to.

He had a good word for me in his most recent newsletter:

One word does well to summarize the day in and day out of families of people with special needs – RELENTLESS. Think about that word, what does it speak to?

Webster’s dictionary defines it as: showing or promising no abatement of severity, intensity, strength, or pace.

The effects of disability do not let up. They are daily, they are hourly, they are there offering challenges by the minute at times. There is no end in sight, there is no cure, there is no healing in the broader sense. But what sweet balm of ultimate healing they will meet if their eyes are turned to Christ. When they know about receiving “resurrection bodies” on that Day, the Ultimate healing!

Read this from the heart of a father:

“Though at times our path in life with our special blessing of a child seems relentless, we see there is hope in God alone. Relentless, never letting up…not a momentary inconvenience but a life of need each day with our child deeply dependent on us. We understand this now as a unique blessing and an opportunity to make much of Christ in our every day whether in caring for our child or in a simple cup of coffee with a friend.”

And the heart of our Father is found in I John 3:1&2

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

A good word, Justin!

So, weary friends, let us all take refuge in God as beloved children.  And he will provide the strength for all that we need to do today.

Read Full Post »

The horrors of abortion were in the news again last week, this time with a doctor performing an abortion on the ‘wrong’ baby.  As you can probably guess, the ‘wrong’ baby was diagnosed with Down syndrome.  Al Mohler, in his blog posting, Aborting the Wrong Baby, provides some helpful commentary on the subject.

Every time he does so, I end up looking at other information on the subject, and discovered this.

Dov Fox and Christopher L. Griffin, Jr., in their article for the Utah Law Review, Disability-Selective Abortion and the Americans with Disabilities Act, quote Dorothy Wertz from a 1992 article she wrote,  How Parents of Affected Children View Selective Abortion.  I’m going to look for that article.

According to Fox and Griffin, Dr. Wertz “identified eight factors that determine parents’ ‘revealed preferences’ for childbirth rather than disability-selective abortion:

(1) guilt over rejecting a child with a disability;

(2) the quality of life from infancy through adulthood for a child with a disability;

(3) whether the pregnancy is “wanted,” independent of fetal disability;

(4) optimism that children with disabilities will be cured or treated of the disabilities with which they are born;

(5) spousal compromises;

(6) financial constraints;

(7) risk; and

(8) the effect of a child with disabilities on existing children.”

I suggest we give parents one more factor: hope in God!

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Actually, I want to make it the SOLE factor, because all of the above from Dr. Wertz are based on personal feelings, predictions about the future, or information which may or may not be true.  God’s word, however, is always true.  And with his sovereign help, all of the above can be faced with hope.

Best of all, we can remind parents who God is in relation to all the people giving them information or advice about the future of their baby with a disability:

From Psalm 146:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Read Full Post »