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I am sad. But only for a vapors breath.

July 4, 2011 by John Knight

When I imagined myself a father, a big thing I imagined was helping him to learn how to drive.

The day I turned 15 I started looking forward to drivers education class.  And the day I turned 16 my mother took me to the drivers examination office, where I earned that precious right to drive all by myself.

That was a big deal for me as a young man, and I enjoyed the thought of helping my future son take this giant step toward independence.

Today my boy turns 16.  I’ve known for 16 years that my blind boy wouldn’t be able to drive.  He isn’t even big enough to reach the pedels.  And if he could see and was big enough, his cognitive disabilities and autism and strange seizure-like disorder would prevent him from driving.

It might seem silly given everything else, but I’m sad about not having that rite of passage with my oldest son.

Yet, God has kindly made me ready for this day:

  • More veteran parents than I am have warned that the seasons of sadness will still come.  Sometimes they come at unexpected times.  Sometimes we can prepare.  I knew this would be one of those times I should prepare.
  • My Jesus understands, because he experienced sorrow: Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38).
  • My Jesus loves me, covers my sins and helps me turn from sin, including sinful temptations to doubt his goodness in my suffering: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (Revelation 1:5).
  • This sorrow has a greater, joyful purpose ahead: For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17).
  • God knows my days and my son’s days: 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).
  • God has good plans for my son and myself: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
  • My son has been the means by which God has revealed himself as of greater worth than anything, including raising a ‘normal’ boy.

I still feel that sorrow about my son’s disabilities today; I expect that tears will come.  But just writing the above list has reminded me that ‘no good thing does he withhold’ (Psalm 84:11).  God is awesome in his love and his power and his mercy!

As Pastor John wrote several years ago:

So let us embrace whatever sorrow God appoints for us. Let us not be ashamed of tears. Let the promise that joy comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5) sustain and shape our grief with the power and goodness of God.

I believe that promise!  I have experienced little tastes of that promise already.

Someday, both Paul and I will experience a different rite of passage, and it is impossible to say who will lead whom.  Either Jesus will return, or we will go to him.

And we will experience something entirely new!

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  Revelation 21:4-5

And that is why I can and will celebrate my son’s birth today, ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Corinthians 6:10).

Happy birthday, son!

Posted in commentary, Quotes, Scripture | 8 Comments »

140 characters (or less) of persistent helpfulness

July 3, 2011 by John Knight

Paul David Tripp is one of those people who can say a great deal with a few words.  He and Pastor John are why I continue to follow twitter.

A few examples:

  • I know, like me, you want now to be a comfortable destination, but it isn’t that. It’s an uncomfortable preparation for a final destination.
  • If you’re God’s child today you will be blessed once again with what you don’t deserve, couldn’t achieve and didn’t earn-it’s called grace.
  • If God’s your Father, he will discipline you, but his discipline is never a sign of his rejection, rather it’s a sure sign of his affection.
  • Today you must battle to convince yourself that what God says is true is really true and for that you have grace.
More than once, God has used Dr. Tripp to reorient my heart.  I’m grateful for his careful, helpful use language.

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What does it mean that God will ‘give us all things’?

July 2, 2011 by John Knight

I’ve been reflecting on the destructiveness of the health and wealth prosperity gospel.  It isn’t because I enjoy it!  But some prosperity preachers like to make much of their ‘healing’ ministries, so I run into them during my studies.

And sometimes they use scriptures like this to promote their really, really bad, illogical, unbiblical thinking:

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

Rather than discourage you with something I came across from a prosperity preacher on Romans 8:32, I thought these paragraphs from Pastor John might be more helpful.

John Piper on Romans 8:32 in The Passion of Jesus Christ: Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die, p. 52:

But what does “give us all things” mean? Not an easy life of comfort. Not even safety from our enemies. We know this from what the Bible says four verses later: “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” (Romans 8:36). Many Christians, even today, suffer this kind of persecution. When the Bible asks, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35), the answer is no. Not because these things don’t happen to Christians, but because “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

What then does it mean that because of Christ’s death for us God will certainly with him graciously give us “all things”? It means that he will give us all things that are good for us. All things that we really need in order to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). All things we need in order to attain everlasting joy.

God gives us things that are good for us – like dependency on him when nothing else is going right in our bodies or our children’s bodies.  Like hope in him when our circumstances are anything but hopeful.

Like the assurance of an eternity with Jesus!

Posted in Quotes, Scripture | 2 Comments »

Biographies of old dead guys are helpful today

July 1, 2011 by John Knight

Pastor John has written some wonderful biographies which are both interesting and instructive.

They are also frequently encouraging on issues I’m dealing with today.

We are working through a complicated issue in a program related to the disability ministry at church.  Lord willing, it will allow us to serve and be served by even more individuals with disabilities – but there is always the next question or hurdle to overcome.

There are always issues like that with this ministry!

So this little paragraph from Contending for Our All by Pastor John was really encouraging:

(W)e rejoice that it is God himself who will fulfill his plan for the church: “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isaiah 46:10). We take heart that, in spite of all our blind spots and bungling and disobedience, God will triumph in the earth: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28).  John Piper, Contending for Our All, p. 166.

Thank you, Lord, for letting us know you will fulfill your plans and you will triumph – and you use bunglers like us!  What a privilege, and what a grace.

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Study Bibles help make much of Jesus!

June 30, 2011 by John Knight

I was reviewing some verses on disability and was pausing over Isaiah 29:17-18:

Is it not yet a very little while
until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.  Isaiah 29:17-18

In the notes in my old MacArthur Study Bible on Isaiah 29:18 it referenced Isaiah 35:5:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.  Isaiah 35:5-6a

And that same note also referenced Matthew 11:5:

4 And Jesus answered them,“Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”  Matthew 11:4-5

How great is that!

Yes, Jesus is Lord over all creation!

Posted in Scripture | 1 Comment »

“It is more true in suffering than anywhere else. . .”

June 29, 2011 by John Knight

It is more true in suffering than anywhere else that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. My prayer, therefore, is that the Holy Spirit would pour out on His people around the world a passion for the supremacy of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.

The pursuit of joy in Christ, whatever the pain, is a powerful testimony to Christ’s supreme and all-satisfying worth.

John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight, p. 84.

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God will gather us all!

June 28, 2011 by John Knight

Behold, I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.

Jeremiah 31:8

Their God will help them; and let none plead that he is blind who has God for his guide, or lame who has God for his strength.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible: Jeremiah 31, published around 1706.

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But he cried out all the more!

June 27, 2011 by John Knight

Those of us with children living with disabilities acquire a whole new vocabulary:  IEP (individualized education program), IDEA (individuals with disabilities education act), Section 504 (the section of the rehabilitation act of 1973 that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities).

Positively, these programs and protections exist to help people with disabilities receive services that benefit them.  Negatively, they exist because people with disabilities have been denied services and opportunities that would have benefited them.

And even with these programs and protections, most parents find they must advocate for their children.

We can hear echoes of that personal advocacy in the accounting of Jesus and Bartimaeus:

46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.  Mark 10:46-52

Charles Spurgeon points out when it is good to ignore others and continue to go straight to the source of help!

He had no thought of any ceremonies to be performed by priests; he had no idea of any medicine which might be given him by physicians.  His cry was, “Son of David, Son of David.” The only notice he took of others was to disregard them, and still to cry, “Son of David, Son of David.” “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?” was the Lord’s question, and it answered to the desire of his soul, for he knew that if anything were done it must be done by the Son of David.

It is essential that our faith must rest alone on Jesus. Mix anything with Christ, and you are undone. If your faith shall stand with one foot upon the rock of his merits, and the other foot upon the sand of your own duties, it will fall, and great will be the fall thereof. Build wholly on the rock, for if so much as a corner of the edifice shall rest on anything beside, it will ensure the ruin of the whole:

“None but Jesus, none but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good.”

All true faith is alike in this respect.

Charles Spurgeon, Saving Faith, Delivered on March 15, 1874.

Posted in Quotes, Scripture | 1 Comment »

Glorifying God when you’re feeling low.

June 26, 2011 by John Knight

It’s easy to say that God is good when you’re feeling great. But it’s another thing – a more God-glorifying thing – to say (and sing) out loud that God is good when you’re feeling low.

The next time you’re feeling a little blue, remember to ‘talk’ to your soul. In fact, use the words “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” to tell your soul wonderful things about God.  It’ll thank you for the reminder!

Joni Eareckson Tada, Hymns for a Kid’s Heart: Volume Two, p. 17.

Posted in Quotes | 1 Comment »

Let us tell our stories and ask God to change things.

June 25, 2011 by John Knight

Dr. Brian Skotko, a Down syndrome specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston, cites a study in the article, New earlier blood test for Down syndrome pregnancies may bring women comfort — or conflict, that “the number of Down syndrome births in the nation dropped 11 percent between 1989 and 2006, a time when it would otherwise be expected to rise 42 percent.”

That statistic has been bothering me all week, so I tried to do the math.  Since I don’t know what the actual numbers are, I tried to figure out the ratio.  If, for example, in 1989 we had 100 Down syndrome births, then we expected that in 2006 we would have 142 Down syndrome births (42% increase).  Instead, we had 89 Down syndrome births (11% decrease).

89(actual)/142 (predicted) = 62.7%

Only 62.7% of the children with Down syndrome that we anticipated would be born in 2006 were actually born.

I looked up some numbers on the Jewish population worldwide before and after the Holocaust:

1939:  17 million

1945: 11 million

The ratio of 11 million (actual living)/17 million (expected but for the Holocaust): 64.7%

Of course, the ratio in Europe was even worse – only about 1/3 of Jews living in Europe survived the Holocaust.

If the systematic identification and destruction of 2/3rds of Jewish people in Europe was called genocide, what do we call an abortion rate of more than 90% of children with Down syndrome for those women who currently are tested?  How much lower will the ratio of Down syndrome births go as new, more accurate and less expensive tests for Down syndrome become available?

I want to be clear – I do not believe that tests are the problem.  Though knowledge of a disability in an unborn child is certainly a hard thing, it is not a bad thing.

But we know our culture has a bias against those who are different, and particularly against those who have developmental disabilities.  We also know, and Dr. Skotko referenced it in the article above, that doctors are not trained in the full reality of disability and usually bring in their own biases.  Abortion is an assumed best option for many, many health professionals at a very vulnerable time in a mother’s and a father’s life.

So, let us tell and re-tell our stories of God’s goodness and provision in our lives.  Whether a person living with a disability or the parent of a child with a disability, we have a particular kind of testimony of God’s faithfulness and goodness.

And then let us pray that God will use our stories to change everyone – presidents and Supreme Court justices and members of Congress and doctors and pastors and genetic counselors and family members and mothers and fathers and everyone else.  We know God can do it!

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.  Proverbs 21:1

Posted in commentary, News, Scripture | 1 Comment »

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