The Works of God

I received this encouraging text from Jan Lacher yesterday:

Last week, Michael’s team leader approached me and said that all the leadership in Connection (Connection is the Wednesday evening service) want Michael in his class no matter how noisy he is.   I took him out at one point because he was extremely loud.  She said that when I gave my little talk to the class in the fall in what to expect with Michael, to know that when he is loud, that is just Michael and to focus on their teacher all the more.  And that is what those kids were doing-focusing on their teacher. The kids weren’t bothered at all with Michael’s loudness.  The team had a meeting after that class and everyone agreed that they want Michael there.

Two great things I took away from this:

1. Jan and Mark have kept showing up at church with Michael, investing not just in Michael but in all the people who interact with him at church.  It isn’t easy to persevere like that.
2. The adults have trusted God for ways to serve Michael and all the other children, and worked hard to include him. It isn’t easy to persevere like that, either.

But the result is wonderful! God has helped those children learn how to persevere through his noisiness because it means Michael gets to stay in his community of peers.  He belongs.

 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. (1 Peter 3:8 ESV)

I read every comment that is posted.  Though I don’t respond to every one, I am grateful for the time people spend in commenting.

And that was particularly true this past week, when I posted on a Daily Mail article.

A brother and sister in Christ who are involved in healthcare in the UK posted comments challenging my assertions based on their actual experiences.

First a portion of the comments from Andrew:

I am a Doctor in the UK. I am also passionately in love with Jesus.

The Daily Mail articles on this subject have been one sided and inaccurate. I have worked with this so-called death pathway for the last few years. It is not at all designed to remove “difficult” patients or to starve patients we no longer feel are worthy of life.

And this from Beckie:

I was rather disappointed that you ran, and are still linking to, this post. The reason for this, is I don’t think you have all the facts. I am a British healthcare worker who has struggled with the newspaper’s constant lies about The Liverpool Care Pathway. (For full disclosure I work with adults) The articles they have been running this year, including this latest one seem designed to destroy a pathway that actually allows us to love and care for dying people. . .

You can read their entire comments at the original post.

I have two primary reasons why I appreciated their comments:

1) This is an important and highly emotional issue. Getting information directly from other sources is helpful.

2) They were addressing the argument and not attacking me.  Kindness goes a long way toward helping me listen for understanding.  But they also didn’t shy away from expressing clearly what they have observed.  That is a precious and helpful thing they did in practicing care in disagreeing and guiding toward clarity, especially in a public blog.

I’m still concerned about what is happening in US healthcare, especially in the emerging technologies and recommendations to search for children with disabilities in the womb – we know how that ends, statistically. And I’ve read just enough to know that there are people who are concerned about the Liverpool Care Pathway.

But these friends in the UK have shown there are Christians on the inside who see positive things about it, and care should be taken in understanding it, more care than I gave it this past week.  I’m grateful for both what and how they commented.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.  (1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV)

Crossway and Desiring God did a wonderful video of Pastor John reading The Innkeeper.  This book is very precious to me, and this reading is beautiful.

The story is very hard, as life can be.  It is important to watch it to the very end.

And, yes, I think I find extra pleasure that this story includes a person with a disability, though how he became disabled is horrifying.

From Pastor John’s blog posting on The Innkeeper:

In the poem called The Innkeeper, I tried to imagine what might have happened when the soldiers came. And what Jesus might have said if he showed up 30 years later to talk to the innkeeper about it. It’s fiction. But its aim is truth and hope and joy.

Desiring God and Crossway Books have teamed up to make a new video recording of my reading of this poem. We hope it will touch some deep place in your heart, perhaps through a wound.

On Tuesday the United States Senate will once again be considering the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  As with any treaty, 2/3rds of the Senate are required for passage.

I am hoping they will vote against the Convention.

As I wrote in July, there are articles within this Convention that are noble and worthwhile, like article 10:

States Parties reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

Unfortunately, the United Nations as a body cannot be trusted to enforce language like that, especially for unborn human beings with disabilities.

As recently as this past September, the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization committed to expanding abortion around the world, submitted a scathing letter to the United Nations Human Rights Committee against the Philippines position on restricting abortion, using the Human Rights Committee’s own rulings. In fact, they documented that the Human Rights Committee found that one instance of a girl being ‘forced’ to bear her child with a fetal anomaly constituted “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.” The Human Rights Committee also found that Peru violated a “right to privacy” when abortion was not easily accessible for reasons of fetal anomaly.  There is no evidence to show the United Nations would proactively support the rights of unborn children with disabilities in any instance.

The list of nations who have signed the Convention is also troubling. Chen Guangcheng, who fled China after years of house arrest for seeking to protect women from forced abortions, recently released this devastating video on human rights violations in China.  Yet China is one of the proud signatories of the Convention, along with Mali and Iran among others.

The United Nations simply does not have the moral standing to justify the trust of the United States people on this Convention.

Further, the arguments in favor of the Convention make no sense:

1. For the sake of US global leadership on this issue.  The United States is already a global leader on issues of disability with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Signing the Convention does not impact the United States’ standing on this issue at all, and may even weaken it as it brings the United States under another sovereign body.
2. For the sake of Americans living and traveling in other nations. As stated above, the United Nations has accepted the ratification from nations that routinely violate human rights.  The United States is in a better position to protect the rights and safety of American citizens than is the United Nations.
3. For sake of a level playing field for US business/investment interests.  Is there even one example where the United Nations has played such a role?

Some even argue that it doesn’t actually obligate the United States to do anything.  The United Nations’ own website on the Convention clearly states that it does create obligations for states that ratify this treaty.

To be sure, the United States does not have a great record with regards to disability.  The abortion rate is sickeningly high and our culture routinely denigrates people with disabilities.  However, the Convention would address neither as the United Nations cares nothing about the former and can do nothing about the latter.

Pray it doesn’t pass the United States Senate.  And contact your senators to express your view.  You can do so through the United States Senate website.

I love Jordon Kauflin’s modern hymn, All I Have Is Christ.  I’ve been surrounded by it lately, including during our staff devotions on Thursday.

I’m encouraged every time I hear it or sing it – he looked upon my helpless state! He suffered in my place!

And that makes this declaration hopeful rather than terrifying: oh Father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose.

We know that God chooses the path of suffering; we’ve lived it.  Yet, having Christ, who suffered and died for us, puts it in its proper perspective:

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. . . (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV) 

It is available as a free download through Desiring God:  All I Have Is Christ – Free Download.

Sovereign Grace, who provided this free download, also produced this short video of men singing at Together for the Gospel.  I love the sight and sound of these thousands of men joining together in praise!  May we dads of children with disabilities do the same, with joy and expectation that God is who he tells us he is in his word.