Disability Day

My church denomination, Christian Reformed Church, designates certain Sundays to recognize historical events or an aspect of the denomination. Last week was officially Disability Concerns Sunday, placing emphasis on making church buildings and worship available to everyone. I'm a week late, but it was my theme or main topic for preaching today.

Thankfully, many churches are wheelchair accessible, but it's still something I need to ask when visiting at a new facility. One of the larger challenges is getting around people's thoughts about disabilities and how someone can contribute to society.

In Jesus' time, it was thought that disability was a result of someone's sin (see John 9) and they were being punished. It is true that sinful choices may result in an injury, such as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or distracted driving. However, a deformity is often not due to a particular choice someone made and shouldn't be treated as such. Another regular comment is that if a person just "has enough faith," they will be cured of any ailment.

Cleaning wheels in gravel

Yes, it's true that God can, and has, cured all types of disabilities and problems (Jesus' miracles and Mark 5:25-34 are examples). However, God also uses them for His purposes, even though we may not understand. Many people make-up several excuses of why they can't share the gospel until they see me doing it. As I say when I give evangelism sermons, not being able to move or breathe independently is no reason why you can't share the gospel. Therefore, I can use the life God has given me to help others.

That doesn't mean life is always easy, the past two days have shown that. My planned to go on a fall drive Saturday to see colorful trees in northern Iowa. However, my day nurse called off sick on Friday and Saturday, making it so they couldn't go. Therefore, the three of us spent a few hours in our local area getting pictures.

Mom saw a few areas for good family photos, but they weren't always near cement. After one photo stop, I got stuck in gravel and had a challenge getting back in the van. For the second stop, I ended up spinning my wheels in mud and spent the next several minutes trying to drive around to clean off my tires. This is part of the quad life sometimes, but we were able to get good pictures for the occasion.

Hopefully this week will have all my caregivers healthy and able to come, but I'll work with whatever God gives me.